TO THE END OF THE WORLD
To The End of the World, his third volume of memoir, is nominally about the struggles and tribulations that he underwent while attempting to fund and then produce his passion project, The Happy Prince, a film about the final days of Oscar Wilde. Yet from the uproarious prologue, in which Everett describes a martini-soaked dinner at J Sheekey with two producers attempting to convince him to play the role of a giant’s personal hairdresser in a special-effects film (‘a little set all made of leaves — leaf sink, leaf hairdryer, leaves through the windows with leaf curtains — and me in the middle, hipsters and a green quiff, backcombing an ogre’) before he realises that he has stood up Joan Collins and Christopher Biggins at The Ivy, this is as much rambling meditation on the perks and indignities of being a B-list celebrity as it is any kind of exploration of Wilde or filmmaking.
By Rupert Everett (Little, Brown, £20) Reviewed by Alexander Larman
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upert Everett has always, to his credit, been the most unconventional of stars. He first emerged in the Eighties as a heartthrob in Another Country, and then, after a quiet few years, returned triumphantly in the late nineties with his acclaimed appearance in My Best Friend’s Wedding, which led to more work as a leading man. Yet his blithe lack of concern for the niceties of the film industry have led to his career being stymied or, at times, derailed altogether. The unremitting candour with which he has chronicled his misadventures, in interviews and autobiographies, has not helped.
“Everett remains an entertaining guide to the vagaries and pitfalls of the entertainment business, although there is a surprising amount of un-ironic luvviedom present here, particularly when it comes to Colin ‘Frothy’ Firth”
“Reading this memoir, it often seems as if Everett’s labour of love nearly sent him to an early grave, like his idol. Although he only gets into the nitty-gritty of the production process surprisingly late into the book, after offering brief insights into his other roles, Everett is both hilarious and revealing on the challenges of trying to mount a reasonably lavish period piece on a low budget, with him as untested director”
Everett admits early on that his vanity led him to turn down the opportunity to have the film made by the legendary American producer Scott Rudin, who wanted Notting Hill director Roger Michell and Philip Seymour Hoffman as Wilde. After he played Oscar on stage, in David Hare’s The Judas Kiss, Everett became obsessed with taking the role himself, as well as writing and directing the film. After many years fruitlessly searching for funding from both British and European sources, interspersed with extra-curricular visits to countless subterranean ‘gentlemen’s clubs’, Everett eventually managed to cobble together the (mainly German) money and the film was made, with a starry supporting cast including his old friend Colin Firth as Wilde’s friend Reggie Turner, Emily Watson as his estranged wife Constance and Colin Morgan as Bosie. It was critically acclaimed, but a commercial disappointment, failing to make back even its
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