Actor Ben Daniels disagrees with Rupert
Everett's advice that aspiring gay actors should remain closeted.
The 47-year-old Daniels made his
remarks to UK website The
Stage.
Everett, best known in the U.S. for
playing Julia Roberts' gay confidant in My Best Friend's Wedding,
recently returned to the London stage in the role of Henry Higgins in
Pygmalion.
In 2009 Everett, 52, said: “I would
not advise any actor necessarily, if he was really thinking of his
career, to come out. The fact is that you could not be, and still
cannot be, a 25-year-old homosexual trying to make it in the British
business or the American film business or even the Italian film
business.”
Daniels, who lives with his partner,
actor Ian Gelder, disagreed.
“I think [Everett] is a brilliant
actor but, hold on, he's also got a really great career. And I heard
him saying in an interview that he's earned enough money to eat out
every night of the year, so it should be put in perspective.”
“I would never advise anyone to stay
in the closet to further their careers – I'm sure it leads to big
fat gay ulcers. There are actors I know who won't come out, and I
can see it crippling them as human beings.”
Daniels, however, conceded that A-list
actors are pressured to remain closeted: “He is absolutely right to
bemoan the lack of gay A-list movie stars. Of course, there are gay
A-list movie stars in existence. It's just that we, the public,
don't know who they are.”