Rupert Everett is looking back at his decades in the spotlight with a mix of honesty, regret, and dark humor. He’s not sugar‑coating anything.
Taking a Toll
The 67‑year‑old actor says years of trying to mold himself into the kind of leading man he thought Hollywood wanted have left him dealing with serious physical consequences.
In a candid new interview, Everett said he pushed himself into intense weight‑training routines without doing any of the stretching or recovery work needed to protect his body. Now, he believes he’s paying the price.
He told The Guardian, “I ruined myself. Now I’m almost crippled as a result.”
Everett explained how he skipped the “boring” parts of fitness and left his tendons tightening over time, adding, “My demise will be musculoskeletal, I think.”
Pressure to Be Perfect
The My Best Friend’s Wedding star says the pressure began early. As a teenager, he was naturally slim, something he remembers with brutal clarity.
He quipped, “My arse was like two bones and a hole. My legs were skeletal.” That insecurity, he says, followed him into adulthood and shaped the way he approached his career.
He reflected, “I was just obsessed about getting on rather than doing my job. I always felt I was missing out on some mythical life that was taking place somewhere else.”
That sense of chasing something just out of reach bled into his work, too.
He said, “Even work was about cruising, trying to be attractive.”
The drive came from feeling he wasn’t attractive enough to begin with.
Everett is clear that his fixation isn’t due to vanity. At least, not in the traditional sense. For him, it was the opposite – a deep insecurity masquerading as ambition.
He said, “Vanity is often a feeling of deep insecurity rather than feeling how fabulous I am.”
Aging Issues
The Serpent Queen actor previously admitted he tries to avoid his reflection as he ages.
He told The Mail on Sunday, when asked what he sees when he looks in the mirror, “Oh, I never look in the mirror if I can help it.”
Everett added about the disadvantages of aging, “Your liver is just not as strong when you’re older. You’re tipsy quicker. And your recovery period is longer. Old age is much better approached without alcohol, if you can do it.”
“But the thing is, at five o’clock in the evening, every nerve ending in my body is craving a drink.”