Rupert Everett: You Have To Be The Failure They Want You To Be

The actor-turned-director speaks to Anna Walker about his most ambitious project to date.

- Anna Walker

IT’S A PERFECT SUMMER DAY IN ROME and I’m sat beneath the leafy shade of Hotel Locarno’s botanical courtyard. The sun creeps through gaps in the wisteria, warming my skin. There’s hardly a sound besides the chirping of birds, the rumbling of passing traffic and the clink of ice cubes slowly losing their battle against the Roman sun. “Look at that bird! It’s trying to f**k the other one!” Rupert breaks the silence.

Rome has been Rupert’s home since January. He’s here filming an upcoming TV adaptation of The Name of the Rose, and there’s still another month until they wrap. But today we’re talking about a bigger project—one that’s been ten years in the making.

Several critics have described Rupert’s turn as the Irish playwright, poet and infamous wit Oscar Wilde in The Happy Prince (a film he also wrote, directed and produced) as the role he was “born to play.” But when I ask if he’s comfortable with that notion, he shifts in his chair uneasily.

“Well I always think it’s quite a dangerous thing to say. It has slightly reductive undertones…but that’s if you’re being paranoid and going over it asking, ‘what does that mean?’ ” He pulls an agonised face, disarmingly goofy as he contorts his handsome features.

“No, I think Wilde is a great role for me, so I agree. What I loved most though,” he grins deviously, “was working with me as a director.”

I laugh, caught off guard. Would he say that he’s his favourite of all the directors he’s worked with?