British actor Rupert Everett has opened up about the physical insecurities he experienced in his youth, revealing that he used to covertly wear “false” bodysuits on camera.
Everett, 67, first rose to fame in the 1980s, and is known for films such as My Best Friend's Wedding (1997) and An Ideal Husband (1999). He currently plays Malise Gordon – the husband of Rupert Campbell-Black’s ex-wife – in Rivals current series.
In a new interview with The Guardian, the actor recalled feeling uneasy over his height as a child – having reached just five feet at the age of 15.
He then grew to 6ft 4in by the time he reached adulthood, which brought on a new set of anxieties. Describing his appearance, he recalled: “My arse was like two bones and a hole. And my legs were skeletal.”
Prompted by concerns over his image, he started wearing a bodysuit to give him a synthetically muscular physique.
“I met these two queens in Tufnell Park who made bodysuits, and they made me a false bottom, false calves, false shoulders, false everything,” he told the outlet.
Asked if he wore them while acting on screen, he replied: “Yes, in everything.”
He claimed, however, that directors would remain oblivious to the ruse, explaining that he would “go into the fittings for the costumes with all my things on”.
Elsewhere in the interview, Everett gave an eviscerating assessment of his early days as an actor, describing himself as “lethal” and “slightly sociopathic”.
Everett first gained recognition in 1981 for his performance opposite Kenneth Branagh in the play Another Country.
Throughout the early and mid-1980s, he enjoyed a buzzy film career (including a filmed adaptation of Another Country in 1984), and, later, a resurgence in the late 1990s.
“I was lethal,” he told The Guardian, recalling his younger days. “I was just interested in myself and my own pleasure. That’s always lethal. I think I was slightly sociopathic.
“I was a terrible gossip, and I repeated everything everyone told me. I’d borrow people’s clothes and never give them back[...] I don’t know how I justified it to myself.”
Most recently, Everett can be seen in the Disney+ series Rivals, adapted from the book by the late “bonkbuster” novelist Jilly Cooper.
