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Culture

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Florida words by Sam Parker | Rupert Everett words by Rachel Fellows

Q

What the film has, however, aside

from interviews with McQueen’s family,

friends and colleagues, is a wealth of

archive material that shows the designer

at work and play — larking about,

smiling, and generally reminding us that

the Nineties were rather a laugh. But

also, in his throwaway comments and

asides, it shows the darkness brewing

inside him, as well as in his collections:

the sense, perceived and real, that others

were trying to take him down; or that he

wasn’t geting the credit he deserved;

or that his future was not in his control.

Ultimately, and tragically, he ensured

that it was.

—

McQueen is out on 8 June

ESQUIRE: You’re no stranger to Oscar

Wilde. Why does he fascinate you?

RUPERT EVERETT: “Coming to London

in the mid-Seventies aged 17, being

gay, I think we all felt we were still on

the outlaw side of things, outsiders,

and that we were walking in the

footsteps of Oscar Wilde because

the scandal was still very much alive.

In one sense, the gay liberation

movement really started with him in

the UK. Also, the character of him is

so funny and amusing and wity. Even,

actually, in his last years as a kind of

vagabond. He’s touching, moving, like

a clown in a way but also a genius.”

ESQ: Why did you name the film aer

his famed children’s story?

RE: “My mum read me The Happy

Prince when I was a child, and so

it’s branded on my memory. And

something felt right about the idea

of calling Wilde in Paris ‘the happy

prince’ because I think, despite

everything, he was still enjoying

himself in a way. The story about the

happy prince is that he’s a statue who

gives away all his silver and gold, all

of his rubies to the poor, and then

he’s got nothing let and they pull him

down; it felt like a good analogy.”

ESQ: In your memoirs, The Vanished

Years, you write about “black bile

bubbling” from your father when he

was ill, and there is a very similar

scene in the film. Is that deliberate?

RE: “It was definitely deliberate.

Watching my father die was one of

my inspirations because my film is

essentially a death-bed story, with

someone lying in bed over a two-

week period, remembering various

parts of his life. So the black bile was

very much something that happened

to my dad, and also happened to

Oscar, funnily enough.”

ESQ: Do you see the film as a way

of keeping Wilde relevant?

RE: “I’d love that. It also reminds

people of society’s hostility towards

minorities, and towards gays in

particular: people are still being

chucked off roofs; in Russia, in

Jamaica, in China, in India, it’s still

a very violent experience. I think

one of the reasons no one’s ever

told this side of the story is that it’s

too embarrassing to remember that

this is what we do to people. But we

still do it, actually.”

ESQ: How will you judge its success?

RE: “The real success for me is, ater

years of half-hearted flakiness in my

life, to have managed to focus for

so long on one thing and drive it

through all the hurdles. I’m one of

those people who’s given up at the

first fence, and what I’ve discovered

on this is that I have much more

strength than I imagined.”

—

The Happy Prince is out on 15 June

Do the Wilde thing

After a decade in the works, Rupert Everett’s film

about Oscar Wilde’s last days in Paris, The Happy

Prince, which the British actor wrote, directed and

stars in, is finally finished. Happily, it’s also really

good. He tells Esquire about a true labour of love