In a recent interview, out British
actor Rupert Everett weighed in on the debate about only casting gay
actors to play gay roles.
Everett, 61, is best known in the U.S.
for playing a gay friend in the 1997 film My Best Friend's Wedding
and Lord Arthur Goring in the 1999 movie An Ideal Husband.
Everett wrote, directed, and starred in the 2018 film The Happy
Prince about the Irish poet and playwright Oscar Wilde, who spent
two years in an English prison for having gay sex.
(Related: Rupert
Everett: Oscar Wilde loved discovering people; Wouldn't have used
Grindr.)
Speaking with The Times, Everett
said it's “not right” that gay roles should only go to gay
actors.
"I don’t think that’s right at
all," Everett
said. "My feeling has always been that I wouldn’t have
missed the movie Behind the Candelabra for anything.”
"As a gay man I was touched by
both of their performances,” he said, referring to Michael Douglas'
portrayal of Liberace and Matt Damon as his lover in the 2013 film.
“Because acting is acting, and it’s
great for gay people to play straight roles too,” added Everett,
who has previously
said that being out hurt his film career.
Everett also said that the film Rug
& Tug, which was canceled after backlash to Scarlett
Johansson's casting in a transgender role, should have been made.
“I think it was a mistake for that
film not to be made because it would have presented a positive image
of the trans world,” Everett said.
“It’s a business, and there isn’t
yet a trans star who’s going to finance a $60 million movie. That
was a mistake. But that’s just me. I’m just one member of the
LGBTQ community, but I’m allowed to think that,” he said.