Rupert Everett: 'Hollywood is Like Al Qaeda'

Rupert Everett isn't too happy with his treatment as an actor in Hollywood.

In an interview with Britain’s The Times, the 48-year-old actor compared Tinseltown to Al Qaeda.

“Hollywood is a place that pretends it’s very liberal but it’s not remotely,” he told the paper.

Mr. Everett told the interviewer that being an openly gay actor has cost him “tons” of starring roles over the years. He also believes that the only reason he was hired to be the voice of Prince Charming in the Shrek franchise is because it’s animated.

Asked whether Jodie Foster’s recent acknowledgement of her lesbian life partner in an acceptance speech indicates a growing tolerance towards homosexuality in the American arm of the film industry, the Importance of Being Earnest star said: “It’s the opposite. She is 45 and she just couldn’t be bothered any more. After a certain age you can be gay [in Hollywood]. Before that it’s not only not good, it’s impossible.”

Revisiting the whole terrorist thing, he offered that making movies in the U.S. is “like being in Afghanistan.”

After dishing his distaste for the unacceptable way in which L.A.-based film companies treat older actresses, pregnant stars (“On abortion, [the studios] are for it in private,” he said), he started in on illicit drug use in the sunny city by the sea.

“No one suggests that Robert Downey, Jr. was really that crazy whereas Britney Spears is almost witch hunted,” he said.

In any case, Mr. Everett, who is perhaps best known for getting an entire Chicago fish restaurant to sing an Aretha Franklin jingle in My Best Friend’s Wedding, will next star in St. Trinian’s.

In the film, he plays a woman named Camilla Fritton, the headmistress of an all-girls boarding school.