Rupert Everett Says ‘We Shouldn’t Be Making Rules’ About Gay Actors Playing Gay Roles

Rupert Everett has said he does not think gay roles need to be played exclusively by gay actors.

Speaking on Piers Morgan Uncensored, the British actor argued that all roles should be open to all sexualities.

“I don’t think gay actors should just play the gay roles,” he said. “I think that the gay actors should be able to play the straight roles too. I think some straight guys played great gay roles.”

The 62-year-old star, who first found fame playing a gay public school pupil in 1984 drama Another Country, has spoken out about gay rights and previously said he believed coming out harmed his Hollywood career.

“I think the question is more ’Why can’t gay actors play straight roles?… We shouldn’t be making rules about this,” he continued. “Yes, of course, it’s great for gay actors who’ve had quite a hard time, you know historically, to be playing more roles to be getting the game.”

The My Best Friend’s Wedding actor praised performances by Michael Douglas and Matt Damon in Behind The Candelabra and applauded Tom Hanks in Philadelphia.

He added: “It’s quite frustrating. I was frustrated, I remember going to see Colin Firth in the film by Tom Ford. I thought, ’Well, thanks, Colin, that’s the end of my career’. Because you know, that role really should have been mine. So you know, there’s a frustration about that, of course.”

It’s A Sin creator Russell T Davies has previously said he believes gay roles should be played by gay actors.

The writer and showrunner, who also worked on Queer As Folk, Doctor Who and A Very English Scandal, said “it’s about authenticity” when discussing the ongoing debate.

Russell T Davies
Russell T Davies

Tristan Fewings via Getty Images

“I’m not being woke about this… but I feel strongly that if I cast someone in a story, I am casting them to act as a lover, or an enemy, or someone on drugs or a criminal or a saint… they are not there to ‘act gay’ because ‘acting gay’ is a bunch of codes for a performance,” Russell told Radio Times.

“It’s about authenticity, the taste of 2020. You wouldn’t cast someone able-bodied and put them in a wheelchair, you wouldn’t Black someone up. Authenticity is leading us to joyous places.”

Last year, US actor Neil Patrick Harris, who starred in It’s A Sin and came out publicly in 2006, was asked if he agreed with Russell’s comments about only wanting to cast gay actors in gay roles.

Neil Patrick Harris
Neil Patrick Harris

Theo Wargo via Getty Images

“I’m not one to jump on to labelling,” he told The Times. “As an actor you certainly hope you can be a visible option for all kinds of different roles.

“I played a character [in How I Met Your Mother] for nine years who was nothing like me,” he continued, noting that he believes it’s important “to hire the best actor” for the part.

Speaking of his own desire to play both gay and straight roles in the future, he added, “In our world that we live in, you can’t really as a director demand that [an actor be gay or straight]. Who’s to determine how gay someone is?”

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Pirates Of The Caribbean Producer Reveals Johnny Depp’s Future With Franchise

The rum and presumably Jack Sparrow will be gone when the next Pirates of the Caribbean film sets sail for cinema screens.

Producer Jerry Bruckheimer, who’s steered the franchise into a multibillion-dollar earner for Disney with Johnny Depp at the centre, recently addressed the controversial actor’s future amid his ongoing $50 million defamation trial against ex-wife Amber Heard.

When asked whether Depp might ever return to his role as the legendary swashbuckler in a recent interview with The Sunday Times, Bruckheimer said, Not at this point. The future is yet to be decided.

Instead, Bruckheimer and company are in talks with Margot Robbie to star in a separate project based in the same universe with the producer teasing, “We are developing two Pirates scripts — one with her, one without.”

Johnny Depp
Johnny Depp

Axelle/Bauer-Griffin via Getty Images

Depp — who starred as Sparrow in five Pirates of the Caribbean films, with the most recent instalment, Dead Men Tell No Tales, arriving in 2017 — has said that Heard’s allegations of abuse against him ruined his career.

The Aquaman star has accused the actor of physically and sexually assaulting her on multiple occasions during their brief marriage, which she alluded to in a 2018 Washington Post op-ed that’s now at the centre of the former couple’s trial. Depp, meanwhile, has also claimed he was the victim of spousal abuse. Both have denied each other’s claims.

In court earlier this month, Depp testified that days after Heard published the piece Disney effectively “cut ties” with him, per Variety. His agent also claimed in court that the actor lost out on a $22.5 million payday for a potential sixth instalment of the Pirates franchise.

But Depp has previously stated that he would never play Sparrow again.

In an exchange with the actor, Heard’s attorney asked whether it was true that “nothing on this earth would get you to go back and work” with Disney on a new film in the franchise, according to Variety.

“That is true,” Depp replied, seemingly putting the nail in the coffin for his future with the franchise.

As for Robbie’s Pirates film, the female-fronted project is reportedly a “wholly original story with new characters,” according to The Hollywood Reporter. Bruckheimer is once again set to produce the film with a script from Birds Of Prey scribe Christina Hodson.

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Olivia Wilde Served With Legal Docs From Jason Sudeikis While Onstage At CinemaCon

Olivia Wilde’s presentation at CinemaCon on Tuesday night turned out to be a family affair ― but not in a good way.

The director and actor was onstage at Caesar’s Palace in Las Vegas discussing Don’t Worry Darling, her upcoming thriller starring Harry Styles and Florence Pugh, when an unidentified person came up front, placed a manila envelope on the stage and slid it toward her, according to The Hollywood Reporter.

As she picked up the envelope, Wilde asked, “Is this for me?”

Turns out it was.

Deadline is reporting that the mystery envelope, which was marked “personal and confidential,” held custody papers from actor Jason Sudeikis, Wilde’s ex-boyfriend and the father of her two children.

Despite the awkward situation, witnesses said Wilde handled the situation like a pro and continued to talk up her film to the audience, which was mostly theatre exhibitors.

Olivia Wilde/ Jason Sudeikis
Olivia Wilde/ Jason Sudeikis

It is unknown how the person serving the papers got into the event, but CinemaCon official Mitch Neuhauser told Variety that security protocols are going to be reevaluated in light of the incident.

An unnamed representative of Sudeikis told HuffPost that the papers were drawn up to “establish jurisdiction relating to the children of Ms. Wilde and Mr. Sudeikis,” but said the actor had nothing to do with how and when the papers were served.

Mr. Sudeikis had no prior knowledge of the time or place that the envelope would have been delivered as this would solely be up to the process service company involved and he would never condone her being served in such an inappropriate manner,” the representative said in a statement Wednesday.

Wilde and Sudeikis were together for nine years before splitting at the beginning of 2020. They share two children: son Otis, 6, and daughter Daisy, 4.

Sudeikis told GQ last July that figuring out exactly what went wrong in the relationship was going to take him a while.

“I’ll have a better understanding of why in a year,” Sudeikis said. “And an even better one in two, and an even greater one in five, and it’ll go from being, you know, a book of my life to becoming a chapter to a paragraph to a line to a word to a doodle.”

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Love Actually Star Bill Nighy Recalls Hilarious Incident Involving A US Customs Official And His Most Famous Line From Rom-Com

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There are plenty of memorable moments in Love Actually (and not all of them for the right reasons, these days), but actor Bill Nighy had arguably the best line in the whole movie.

The British actor played ageing rocker Billy Mack in the 2003 Christmas rom-com and there’s one particular line that has followed him everywhere. Literally.

In one of the film’s most memorable scenes (watch below), Billy appears on a kid’s TV show fronted by a youthful Ant and Dec when he addresses the young viewers at home with an important message.

“Hiya kids, here’s an “important” message from your uncle Bill,” he begins. ”Don’t buy drugs. Become a pop star and they give you them for free.”

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