Rupert Everett

Posted on by Tony CrawleyCategories:Actors

 

  1. Christophe(r) Lambert, Greystoke: The Legend of Tarzan, Lord of the Jungle, 1984.       Difficult to believe that UK director Hugh Hudson could have even considered the  slim-line, gay flavour of the hour in  Another Country as the ape-man!  But then Hudson chose Lambert!  And Pacino for Revolution!   Robert Towne’s Tarzan choice had been  the French Laurence Malet,  when due to direct his own script – finally credited to PH Vazak (his Hungarian Shepherd dog). Nearly on the vine for Hugh Hudson (from Chariots of Fire) were: Hollywood hunks Richard Gere, Harry Hamlin, Viggo Mortensen; two other French guys, Patrick Norbert, anc Lambert Wilson. (Lambert nearly quit because he didn’t wish to be separated for so long from his Paris lover, Nathalie Baye).
  2. Jonathan Pryce, Brazil, 1985.   Everett was a supriuse choice for (a younger) Sam Lowry, after Tom Cruise refused to test. AuteurTerry Gilliam first wrote Sam as a  twentysomething for Pryce, then up-aged it to match his 37 years when a budget was finally raised.  Gilliam called it: 1984 and a half.Sure ended up that way.Don Gilliam vThe Windmills of Hollywood.
  3. Gary Oldman, Sid and Nancy, 1986.          An earlier version had Rupert oppposite Madonna as Nancy!
  4. Daniel Day-Lewis, A Room With A View, 1986.     With My Beautiful Laundrette out as well, this was Daniel’s breakthrough year.  
  5. Richard White, Beauty and the Beast, 1990.        The Brit was told he was not arrogant enough for Gaston in Disney’s 30th toon feature. Idem for Donny Osmond, Patrick Swayze. But Everett remembered the comments, which is how he won Prince Charming in Shrek 2, 2003.
  6. Gary Oldman, Bram Stoker’s Dracula, 1992.    Director Francis Coppola decided to make the old legend “younger, very erotic, very romantic and very horrific.” Los   ing his favourites – Jeremy Irons, Daniel Day-Lewis – Francey looked at everyone else, mainly during auditions at his Napa Valley estate… Everett, Armand Assante, Antonio Banderas, Nicolas Cage, Nick Cassavetes, Rupert Everett, Colin Firth, Andy Garcia, Hugh Grant, Ray Liotta, Kyle MacLachlan, Costas Mandylor, Viggo Mortensen, Dermot Mulroney, Michael Nouri (a long way from Flashdance), Adrian Pasdar, Jason Patric, Aiden Quinn, Keanu Reeves, Alan Rickman, Christian Slater and Sting.
  7. Hugo Weaving, The Adventures of Priscilla, Queen of the Desert, Australia, 1994.       A bit obvious…Hugo proved a real surprise.
  8. David Ogden Stiers, Pocahontas, 1994.        When did you ever hear anyone say: Man I hated the movie, kept trying to work out where I’d heard the Governor’s voice before… Disney barred Richard White from voicing Governor Ratcliffe because the public would recognise him as Gaston’s voice in the 1990 Beauty and the Beast toon. As if actors cannot change their voices. And then… and then!!… they gave it to DOS and had him also voice his own manservant, Wiggins! Which proved an actor can change his voice, wouldn’t you say… Five Brits were also in the frame: Brians Blessed and Cox, Rupert Everett, Stephen Fry, Patrick Stewart. Well, there were no US accents in the 17th Century.
  9. Robin Williams, Jumanji, 1995.         Two kids find a jungle board game with magic powers unleashing grotesque animalia and some poor sap trapped inside the game since playing it as a tot. Williams lapped it up after Dan Aykroyd, Sean Connery, Richard Dreyfuss, Harrison Ford, Tom Hanks, Michael Keaton, Kevin Kline, Bill Paxton, Kurt Russell, Arnold Schwarzenegger fled the incoherent script. Jumanji, incidentally, is Zulu for “many effects.” And how
  10. Paul McGann, Doctor Who (The Movie), TV, 1996.

  11. Billy Zane, Titanic, 1996.
  12. Jean Reno, Godzilla, 1997. Everett passed. Of course. So Reno won his Hollywood debut  as  French insurance salesman (actually, secret service agent) Philippe Roaché. And a lot of good it did him.
  13. Angus Macfadyen, Cradle Will Rock, 1999.       Orson Welles was no longer around to rewrite the (Tim Robbins) script, as he done Ring Lardner Jnr’s in 1984, when Rocking The Cradle his celebrated 1937 stage production of the trades union musical… when Welles died on October 10 in the Hollywood that killed him years before. Everett was to be Welles at 21 (with Amy Irving as his pregnant first wife, Virginia Nicholson. Chicago critic Roger Ebert was among the many who felt Macfadyen didn’t look or sound much like the often obnoxious and drunken portrait. Ebert added that Robbins would have been an ideal Welles. Tim had, in fact, toyed with the idea but was busy enough writer-directing.
  14. Richard Gere, Chicago, 2002.
  15. Jason Isaacs, Peter Pan, 2002.      From the outset, PJ Hogan saw his Best Friend’s Wedding scene-stealer as Captain Hook… although Gary Oldman and Alan Rickman were also talked of and to. Sounds like another of the Harry Potter auditions. Except Oldman and Rickman were already aboard and, soon enough, Isaacs as well.
  16. George Clooney, Intolerable Cruelty, 2003.      The (stupid) 1999 idea was to repeat the team from My Best Friend’s Wedding – Julia Roberts and Everett.
  17. David Morrissey, Basic Instinct 2, 2005.         Once the original, Canadian director David Cronenberg agreed withSharon Stone about casting Rupert, “all hell broke loose.” MGM chief Chris McGurk called him a“pervert who would never be accepted by the American public in this role.” Sharon never gave in. “I can’t believe what’s happening. I’m with my pastor and we agree that we can close the movie down if that’s what you want”! (“I let myself down,” said Morrissey. “When it came out… I didn’t want to leave the house.It was a very bruising experience”).
  18. Hugh Laurie, Arthur Christmas, 2010.  Steven Claus – the clever son, unlike his brother, Arthur – was also aimed at Everett. Then again, if Arthur wasnl’t clumsy, there’d be no toon tale about solving a major Christmas gift glitch.
  19. Paul Schrader, Dog Eat Dog, 2016.    The crooks are so dumb, this is Carry On Tarantino. But the director, Paul Schrader, said: “The film is as much about crime films as it is about criminals. There’s kind of a meta quality to it.” Just not enough to interest Everett, Michael Douglas, Jeff Goldblum, Nick Nolte, Christopher Walken or Michael Wincott in playing a mobster called The Greek. Schrader also asked fellow directors – but Italian Americans! – Martin Scorsese and Quentin Tarantino. Then, Nic Cage persuaded his director to go Greek, himself.  

 

 

 

 

 

 Birth year: Death year: Other name: Casting Calls:  19