As he promotes his latest film – in which he portrays gay poet Oscar Wilde – Rupert Everett has revisited comments he made in 2009 about being out ruining his film career.

Everett told The Guardian: “It doesn't work if you're gay. It's not that advisable [to be an out actor] to be honest. It's not very easy. And, honestly, I would not advise any actor necessarily, if he was really thinking about his career, to come out.”

Speaking at a press event for The Happy Prince, Everett said that he never told gay actors not to come out.

“I think advice is one of the most revolting things that people think it's their right to give or take,” Everett said. “I don't think you should take advice or give it. I think every actor should do exactly what they feel. You have to be a light to yourself in these things, and no one else can tell you what to do. And I never, ever told actors that [they] should come stay in the closet or do whatever.”

In an interview with LGBT blog Queerty.com, Everett said that attitudes had changed in Hollywood and society.

“Attitudes are definitely changing,” Everett said. “Everything’s changing now. So who knows what the next step will be? I think it’s definitely not taboo to be gay in front of the camera anymore in the same way that it was. You know, when I came out and started in showbiz to play a gay part was frowned upon to start with. I think that’s certainly not true because at a certain point, all the straight actors wanted to play gay parts. And this has been difficult for [gay actors] because we, at least traditionally, could at least get to play the gay parts.”

“And now the straights have taken the gay’s parts, and it’s not going the other way. It’s still not going the other way. What we’ve got to get to the point of…there was a drama in the last few weeks about a Disney film [Jungle Cruise] that cast a straight actor in a gay role. Which, of course, for the young, gay actors in the UK has to be very frustrating. But, more than getting to play the gay part, I don’t see why they’re not getting to play the fucking straight parts! That is where, I think, phobia still exists. And it’s not a phobia in terms of a hatred or violence, it’s a kind of straight man’s phobia.”

(Related: Jack Whitehall to play gay character in Disney's Jungle Cruise.)

“They can’t imagine that a gay man would know how to fuck a woman,” he added.

The Happy Prince is in theaters now.