Rupert Everett: 'My Sexuality Killed My Career'

[Brian Damage]

Actor Rupert Everett is convinced his sexuality stunted his blossoming Hollywood career - insisting movie bosses stopped offering him leading roles after he announced he is gay.

The British star won a string of lead roles in films throughout the 1980s, but his acting career slowed down after he revealed his homosexuality in 1989. Everett is adamant that the revelation put an end to a promising career as a movie star, leaving him to play a handful of roles as the 'gay best friend'.

Everett - who played gay characters in both The Next Best Thing and My Best Friend's Wedding - also claims he was turned down for the lead role in 2006's Basic Instinct 2 because of his sexuality. And the star blames Hollywood executives for being too scared to cast a gay man in a heterosexual leading role.

He tells The New York Times Magazine, "I wanted to be a movie star. I had a difficult set of circumstances to deal with, particularly for a movie career. Being gay, really. It just doesn't work."

And Everett hopes that movie bosses will eventually be able to look past people's sexual preferences when casting for films, adding, "As actors we don't play gay, straight... we play human beings."

http://www.nytimes.com/pages/magazine/

[catlover79]

I don't think it's his sexuality so much is that he just hasn't been in that many good movies. Maybe he should try TV. Look at actors like Glenn Close, Laurence Fishburne, etc. They have found success on the small screen, and maybe Rupert can, too.