This programme film contains strong language.
TEARFUL: Don't get emotional.
Have you seen my penis? CHUCKLING
ALAN YENTOB: Our story begins here. It's April 2013
and I'm on my way to Rupert Everett's house.
He's agreed to document the next year of his life as he finally
completes a project that's obsessed him for more than a decade.
To write, direct and star in a film about his hero,
the patron saint of homosexuals, Oscar Wilde.
KNOCKING Rupert?
Coming.
GROWLING
That was very theatrical.
Alan, come in. This way.
So, Rupert, I've got something for you. What is this?
And there it is. My God, it's beautiful.
HD. HD, only the best.
Only the best at the BBC. This must have cost a fortune.
Yes, but you're worth it.
BEEP
That's now yours for the next year and a half, or however long...
It takes. It takes.
This is the equipment that was used by Beyonce.
It's that sort of idea, you know? In bed at night.
Yep. At any point, moments of intimacy... When I have a thought.
When you have a thought you want to share with us.
I never have moments of intimacy. Don't you?
When I first visited Rupert back in 2013, he'd already been pursuing his
passion project about Oscar Wilde for some six years.
But the cast was in place and he thought he'd raised
almost all the money.
Little did he know, it was just the beginning.
Oh, that's better, yeah.
I think I'll be shooting myself from above.
And, Alan, tell me, what happens if my film never gets made,
how do we end the story?
My suicide? Rehab, possibly?
Yeah, rehab would be good.
I could end up in rehab. Yeah.
Or probably playing Oscar Wilde again up in Scarborough or something.
LAUGHTER
It's the last night of the Judas Kiss,
David Hare's play about the scandal and disgrace that engulfed
Oscar Wilde. It's been a smash,
earning Rupert rave reviews and an Olivier nomination.
Playing Oscar on the London stage is all part of his plan for the film.
To prove to those investors who can provide the last bit of funding that
he can pull off the part.
This hand was a print taken of Oscar Wilde's hand by this psychic called
the Sybil of Mortimer Street in 1880.
And there's, like, six copies of it.
And I have one.
Yep, and it's given me my sparkle.
But now I've got make up on it.
Cos when I did the play first, I really felt Oscar Wilde around all
the time, then when we came into this disease trap of a theatre,
I felt he didn't really come with me.
And the first few shows, I wasn't very good in.
And then, um, someone gave me that hand...
..and so it did become symbolic of trying to bring him back into me
slightly. And get, you know, my sparkle back.
Hm?
Always got to sparkle.
Oops.
Last time, thank God.
It's been amazing for me because when I wrote my film, I wasn't sure
that I would be able to play the role.
So it's been an amazing experience.
Kind of honed down my own ideas about Oscar Wilde.
Lots of people don't wear make up any more in the theatre, but I can't
think what else there is to do before the show.
So I've put on tonnes.
These are my teeth.
As a child, Rupert loved to listen to his mother reading him
The Happy Prince, Oscar Wilde's tale of a statue who lets a swallow
strip off his gold to feed the poor.
"Swallow, swallow, little swallow," said the happy prince.
"You tell me of marvellous things.
"But more marvellous than this..."
But the film script Rupert has written focuses on Oscar's own de-glittering.
Released from prison, disgraced and dying,
he's reunited in exile with Lord Alfred Douglas, or Bosie,
the lover who brought about his ruin.
You don't seem very worried.
What do you mean? By not having any money.
I came at your invitation.
If you remember, it was your idea.
You promised to look after me. You had money, you said.
So?
Six years ago, I started working on my own film script about Wilde,
so I really did read every book about him.
And it may be one of the reasons I'm playing it well,
cos I really do know the character, quite inside out.
Or at least my version of it.
I think, you know, historical characters are up for grabs, really,
they are what you want them to be.
Good afternoon. I'm the great Irish poet and dramatist Oscar Wilde.
LAUGHTER
A MAN SPEAKS IN ITALIAN
Non far niente. Benvenuto casa mia.
HE GASPS
LAUGHTER
All the modesty of an Italian, I see.
LAUGHTER
Sorry.
All the films about him end when he goes into prison.
And, for me,
the part I've always found very romantic is this...
..fallen star, because he was such a celebrity, he's a fallen star.
The English living... Like, one of the last great
19th-century vagabonds.
Smelling of piss with no teeth, you know.
He really is lying in the gutter.
Then I became...
..a little bit obsessed by the story and the notion of him...
..always wanting to get to the gutter, somehow.
I think it's a very romantic story.
It's never been told in a film, so I started writing about that.
Every life has its formative experiences.
Little Rupert Everett's first thunderbolt struck in Braintree in
1965 at the Embassy Cinema.
Those huge curtains silently swished open and Mary Poppins sprang across
the footlights and into my heart.
The next 90 minutes were the most shocking, inspiring, funny, tragic,
exhausting, draining and troubling of my entire life.
# For a spoonful of sugar helps the medicine go down. #
My mother was discarding an old tweed skirt.
It was my first act of madness.
I was going to be Mary Poppins' daughter and this skirt was how
I would pull it off. I rescued it from the dustbin and,
before long, I was wearing it all the time.
Nobody paid much attention but something had started.
The giant and deranged ego had been born.
For a posh boy from the Home Counties,
Rupert's big break came in a most unlikely place.
After his dismissal from the Central School of Speech and Drama for
insubordination, he washed up here,
at Glasgow's ground-breaking Citizens Theatre.
And the rest is history.
I will never forget that first image of the Gorbals. A half-built mosque,
the burnt-out carcass of a car in a circle of parched grass,
a menacing group of kids running around with a football.
And the theatre, blurry in the drizzle,
more like a Methodist church than a bacchanalian performance centre.
Yeah, well, yep, yep...
"This doesn't look much like a place where the actors all have sex in the
"showers after the show," I grumbled to Joe,
in reference to one of the myths surrounding the theatre.
"I'm sure you'll change all that, replied Joe," tartly.
Well, I mean, probably, who knows whether any of it was true?
Well, I suppose I do, but I'm not saying.
Now, while we're at it...
He turned up one day.
I was trying to do an adaptation of Proust.
I was rather short on aristocrats to hang around, actually,
they're a bit in short supply in Glasgow.
And he, luckily, he came and banged on the door and said,
was there any work?
Stage door.
And there was.
Please help me. I don't know what to do.
It's your life and you've lived it as you've wanted to live it. Yes.
That's fair. You've wanted love, always.
Passionate love. Because you were made like that.
It's not your fault, that's the fault of circumstances.
Rupert's returned to the Citizens to help celebrate its 70th anniversary.
She's gorgeous, she's gorgeous.
Jack, this is Vic Davis.
Hello. And this is Celia.
Hello. Nice to meet you.
We were all in my first job together. Yes. That's right.
This is where I started my illustrious career.
Coming here changed my whole life.
And working for Philip Prowse, the director of the theatre,
and, by the way, also the person who helped me write my script about
Oscar Wilde, was definitely one of those life-changing...
What's it called, a watershed moment? Is that a watershed moment?
Go away. Don't keep telling me to go away when our only hope is to hammer it out.
It got him an equity card and it got him on a stage,
which is where he wanted to be.
What all actors, I think, need is the experience of standing there and
not wetting yourself in front of, in front of...
..you know, 500, 800 people.
He was being beautifully brought up, traditionally brought up,
beautifully brought up.
Well, all I would say is you should meet his mother, I mean,
there's no fagging around with her. I mean, you know?
HE CHUCKLES
Look at that pipework, by the way.
Have you ever seen anything so beautiful?
I think I'm going to have my Christmas cards made of it.
Maybe you should leave it exposed.
Well, I'm wondering if we might leave this bit.
It is a work of art and nobody ever sees plumbers' works of art.
Rupert's moving back in with Mummy.
They'll be sharing a roof for the first time since Rupert was 17.
Major renovations are taking place.
So this is going to be your kitchen?
Yes. I hope you're going to learn to cook really well because why would
you ever want to leave here?
I'm feeling rather jealous, actually.
Do you two get on? Rupert and me?
So far. We might not get on, though, when we've moved in together.
When... SHE CHUCKLES
We will see. We'll have to make rules.
You've made them already.
I've said Mummy's allowed to come and have dinner in my house
twice a week, did I say? No, once.
Once. And then I'm going to have dinner with you once a week.
Don't you think you should put something on paper?
It is on paper.
It's an obvious question - what was Rupert like growing up?
What was he like? Um...
She can't remember! Yes, she can, leave her alone, will you?
He was a very nice little child, they both were, my children,
nice little children.
I hated going away to school.
And I had this little brown suitcase, which I've still got,
and I was packing it and unpacking it and I was so proud and excited,
not knowing what was going to happen.
It was barbaric.
All children had everything knocked out of them at age seven.
You have to learn to contain emotion straightaway and you cannot...
You cry for the first day and then you have a decision to make -
either you stop crying, and become part of the status quo, or you go on
crying and then you become a victim of the rest of them.
And I became a show-off.
I don't agree. I did. If you read all my reports,
they're all about showing off.
Are they? Yes. And kind of a hysterical type of showing off.
And that's how I became an entertainer, I think.
My grandmother used to say to me, you probably don't remember this,
she said, "You were such a quiet child, what happened to you?"
When Rupert somehow found his calling...
..did he inform you? Which, the gay calling or the acting calling?
Well, let's talk about them both. What about the gay calling?
No, he never informed us of that. The acting calling I did.
I can't remember how we found out about that,
I really can't, which is quite extraordinary.
And the acting calling, I can't remember how we found out about that.
Daddy dealt with that, didn't he?
You told me that I would end up on the streets.
I never thought he would make a success of it, I have to say.
I know, I was very... My husband had complete faith in him.
Well, you don't really expect your children to be successes properly,
do you? What did you expect of him?
I don't know. Couldn't tell you.
Catholic, straitlaced and military.
There were a fair few hurdles for the Everett family
to get over with Rupert.
That's about it, you see. I'm hardly even featured.
That's very difficult for an actor, for a thespian, not be featured.
What about your dad and your mum?
Not only an actor, but also...
Queer. A queer. I think that was very difficult for them at the beginning.
Did you ever have a moment when you said to your parents,
"This is who I am?"
No, no. Never.
They'd have hated that. They don't have that whole, um...
..language at their disposal about, um...
..you know, affection and love.
A compliment in my family is, "She knows how to park!"
Well parked!
Honestly, Alan, for fuck's sake! You can't even get us back home.
Oh, God, here we go, this is it.
We're going be stuck in traffic. Yes, well it's just inevitable
because there's roadworks.
It's because you left too late, Alan. Would you rather walk?
Hmm... If we get close to a station, possibly.
God, we're not in Hollywood now, you know.
Free recovery awaits.
I could dump you there and they could pick you up.
Oh, God, that afternoon's absolutely exhausted me.
Presenting my mother to the world has kind of undone me.
ALAN LAUGHS
Sleep away.
I had met many stars.
At 17, I'd sat with David Bowie downstairs at the Embassy Club and
been lectured on the mystical potential
hidden in the number seven.
At 18, I had dined at La Coupole in Paris with Andy Warhol
and Bianca Jagger.
I sniffed poppers with Hardy Amies on the dance floor of Monkbury's.
I'd done blow with Steve Rubell and Halston at Studio 54.
I was spoiled for excitement and I knew what it was to be drunk on fame by association.
It has to be said, Rupert has had a somewhat chequered career.
You're just using her, you're going to leave her hanging and walk away.
This one was a bit of a car crash.
Hearts Of Fire saw him co-star with Bob Dylan, who subsequently,
and sensibly, stuck to music.
You know, I guess I always knew I was never one of them rock and roll
singers that was going to win any Nobel Prize.
He hit the Hollywood big time in My Best Friend's Wedding
with Julia Roberts.
George likes to pretend that he's gay!
And why would you do that?
Oh, I find it attracts women.
Indeed, yes. Worked for me.
There, this one, this is the M3.
Do I make a left? Yes!
No.
But his most talked about turkey,
as Madonna's gay best friend in The Next Best Thing...
Oh, I missed you so much.
..rather backed him into a corner, casting wise.
I'm pregnant with your baby.
I suppose being gay in the business,
I don't like, it's so boring to talk about,
but it's been such an issue, really, for me, personally.
You know, it was the major driving force of my career,
being gay and making it for a second and then, slightly, the carpet was
pulled from under my feet. It just didn't go on for very long.
What brought that about, do you think, that suddenly?
Because you were... I needed to get in Hollywood something apart from playing the gay best friend.
A proper, good, straight role, I could never get it.
And I think making the film with Madonna, in the end, you know,
because it didn't go well, was the kind of, knocked it on the head.
Daddy, are you a faggot?
What?
I'm here to tick you off.
Oh, you are?
Why? Well, because we gave you a camera...
..and you haven't used it. I tell you why, what happened.
I became a little bit depressed about the whole process of my film
and I found that the idea of putting it on camera
was rather too excruciating.
But now I've had a breakthrough -
it's funny how one has breakthroughs -
and something lifted for me last week.
And I suddenly felt a kind of rush of energy that my film will actually
happen and I think it will happen.
It will happen. It will happen.
I managed to finance most of the film on getting Colin Firth to agree to be in it.
Which was very nice of him, and I got the signature,
and you take these signatures to all the financiers and they say,
"Oh, Colin Firth, fantastic!"
By the way...
..I've decided that the greatest happiness of the greatest number
will best be achieved if I do agree to be a prefect.
Tommy!
Stop it.
I shall insist on the terms set forth by Menzies but with one extra condition -
I shall refuse to take house prayers.
Rupert and Colin go back - way back,
to their 20s, when they explored politics and sexuality together in
Another Country.
Rupert has been rather beastly about Colin on occasion.
But that didn't stop them from co-starring again in their 40s
in an adaptation of an Oscar Wilde classic.
We have to talk. You have to leave.
But if I leave, how can we talk?
We cannot both be called Earnest.
I don't believe we are, brother Jack.
Suddenly creative artists were on the phone to me.
He said, you know, "Colin really want us to get into this for you and
"it sounds like a great project and we want to package it for you,"
and all this kind of stuff.
"Listen, I think we've got a great cast already.
"We've got Emily Watson, we've got Tom Wilkinson, we've got you."
And I wanted to say, "And Colin," but I never dared say it.
And I realised halfway through that the reason they were doing it was
because actually Colin didn't want to be in the movie.
And so he had said to them, "Listen, try and help him out."
And then I got an e-mail from Colin Firth's wife, Livia, saying,
"Oh, Colin doesn't dare to call you. He's got a lovely new part,"
and I knew the game was up.
Are you planning now to sort of delay until you can get Colin back
or what? No, I've read Colin the Riot Act.
Because the point is, his role is only six days long.
And, as we all know, stars of his stature can reorganise any shooting
they want, if they want to.
And the thing is, he's just got to do it because otherwise I'm going to kill him.
I really will kill him.
Rupert's been invited to the Marrakech Biennale
to promote his project.
Progress has stalled yet again.
He's been refused funding by the BFI, the British Film Institute.
I'm hoping we might be able to change the minds
of the guy at the BFI. I don't know why,
but I very much want to make my film with the help of the BFI.
Bonjour.
Oscar loved North Africa, too.
He visited Algiers with Bosie,
where they indulged in all sorts of activity.
Oscar even turned pimp,
procuring a flute-playing Arab boy for the French writer Andre Gide,
who later wrote home,
"Wilde, if only he were capable of being careful -
"he would be a great genius.
"But, as he says himself, I have put my genius into my life."
HORN BEEPS
Oh!
Dead end.
This could be the scene that represents my struggle to get my film made,
endless dead ends, false leads.
Beautiful vistas that turn into culs-de-sac.
Marrakech won't bring any cash for the film, but Rupert's new strategy
is all about networking.
Talk to anyone who'll listen, any time.
OK, perfect. Yes.
8.30.
All right, bye.
OK, welcome to my pad.
Here's La Yentob.
You've got to film him arriving.
Alan!
Come, come to my riad.
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Let's start. Rupert, I described you as a movie star.
Do you take that as an insult or a compliment?
I'm dying to be a movie star.
I just... So it's definitely a compliment.
I think at the moment, really, my movie career kind of has, you know,
disappeared without trace, but I'm hoping to get it back on track.
So we are making our way towards your...
My little personalised riad, where I'm going to take you out onto the
roof for a grilling.
I'm always plotting and planning.
And my latest plot is writing a movie, which I've done,
which I'm going to direct and act in myself, and hopefully it's going to
be made this October.
This is amazing, this is the life, ligging off festivals and biennales.
I think I'm going to make a career out of it.
I felt rather guilty at first when I got here.
Surely not! But then, I thought fuck it.
This is a movie about Oscar Wilde.
Talk to us a little bit about why he's such a role model to you?
I'd love to know, also, what your take on him is in the screenplay.
Wilde was a very, very good match for me, work wise,
and I thought being, you know, gay in the movie business
is a tough journey
because everyone in the movies has to do what people want them to do,
and so if you're a gay actor in the movies,
you really have to just knuckle down and do gayish things, and I thought,
well, Oscar Wilde actually would be the central role for me to play,
particularly since all the films that are made about Oscar Wilde
always end at the moment where I think he finally becomes interesting.
This is the bathroom.
Cleopatra's bathroom.
Oh, God. You'd want to just stay there, wouldn't you? Basically.
It's quite amazing, isn't it?
You realise, after a bit, you are only what other people think about
you, and at some point, people are absolutely hanging breathless on
every story you're telling, and the next moment, they're looking over your shoulder as
you're telling, you know, an even more brilliant story,
and they're completely not interested.
So I think that it's a great discipline
to be a success and a failure.
Do you brush your tongue? Never.
No? No, why would you brush your tongue?
Because I don't know where it's been.
The main thing in show business is there's only one lesson -
it's keep moving. You have to be a shark. As long as you keep moving, something happens.
Well, on that note, Rupert, it's been wonderful talking to you.
Thanks a lot. Thank you all very much. Rupert Everett, ladies and gentlemen. Thank you very much.
With my plunge pool.
So down to business, then.
I feel like my whole career has meant nothing, in one sense.
Do you think that's very unreasonable?
I've worked all of my life in this business
and I've come up with a script that everybody thought,
a lot of people thought, was good.
I'm a first-time director
and right from the beginning with the BFI, they never returned my
phone calls when I tried to get in touch with them,
and then to be turned down, I just feel...
gutted. I feel...
We can't leave it at that. No, I can't leave it at that.
I can't leave it at that. I think it's really unfair.
Can't you call the BFI and, "Please, daddy?"
Funnily enough, I'm just doing that. "Please daddy?"
I'm sitting with Rupert Everett in a very dilapidated,
ramshackle place in Marrakech and he's very depressed.
He's crying because he's been rejected by the BFI.
So will you give me a ring back?
Thanks.
Listen, Alan, it's just not worth going on, if I can't get money from
the BFI after 20 years in this business, well,
I might as well just throw myself down off my riad.
Ahh! Oh, my God!
Agh! PHONE RINGS
It's the BFI. Hi, hi.
PHONE: Is now an OK time?
Well, it's not too good because Rupert Everett just threw himself
off the balcony and I think he's killed himself.
Oh, dear.
Please, give me the money.
When I had, you know, quite a major Hollywood career for a few years,
and so much opportunity, I was unable to exploit it, really.
Every single Hollywood studio wanted to give me a development deal for
something, and I had many development deals and fucked them all,
didn't fuck them all up, but just when they started going wrong,
just let them go. And it's ironic that I would only discover a kind
of tenacity when it was too late
and, you know, ironic and, I suppose, typical.
# Dearest, dearest, one thing I know
# Everything I feel for you
# Started many ages ago
# Long before I knew you
# Long before I met you
# I was sure I'd find you
# Someday, somehow
# I pictured someone who'd walk and talk, and smile as you do. #
I've come to hear another perspective on Rupert
from his dear friend, that great character, man about town and
celebrated interior designer, Nicky Haslam.
Together they've been getting up to all sorts of mischief for decades.
I like it when you cry, though.
BUZZER RINGS
Hello Alan, darling. Hello.
A cup of tea or something?
It's all you're going to get. I've got nothing, well, I've got drink,
I've got strong drink.
No, I'll have a cup of tea. All right.
So we're making this film about Rupert.
Oh, wonderful. He's a genius, Rupert.
I think he's one of the four most brilliant people
I've ever met in my life.
He's up with Gore Vidal for me.
Seriously? Yes. I think he's extraordinary.
There's nobody like him left.
I don't really want to go back to it
because it's so expensive.
When I smoked it was £20 a day.
You can afford that, Nicky, can't you?
I can't afford it. I'd rather spend it on coke.
"I first met Nicky when I was 17 and worshipped him immediately."
I'm glad to hear that. "In those days, he was quite conventionally
"turned out, with only a feather cut silver bouffant and a slightly
"clipped Noel Coward delivery that set him apart,
"unless, of course, you bumped into him off the beaten social track.
"Late one night, as I once did, at The Coleham pub in Earls Court.
I love the way he says "once" - he was in there night after night.
"The main thing was, that even though he was already ancient..."
And his's talking about you here. "In our cruel teenage eyes,
"he was completely unlike the other men we knew.
"He looked at life with a fascinating mixture of childlike enthusiasm and
"savage queenery. Unfortunately, this type of queer is largely extinct now,
"but in the '70s, there were still quite a few left,
"and it was in their drawing rooms that one still heard the nuance and
"timbre of Wilde."
That's true. I mean, Wilde was a sort of bad word.
People would say, "Oscar Wilde, you like Oscar Wilde?"
People sort of said that when I was young.
He was still a big memory.
Because my parents were the age to remember it, you know.
They remembered the scandals and everything.
Tell me about Rupert's obsessive interest with Oscar Wilde.
I don't think he identifies with Wilde in any sort of sexual way,
but I think it's more...
..his, Wilde's mind is very like Rupert's,
and that's where he connects, I think.
Reading Gaol. Oscar Wilde, sent down for gross indecency in 1895,
endured two years of hard labour here.
Today Rupert has been invited to read Wilde's most famous poem
in the place that inspired it.
In Reading Gaol by Reading town, There is a pit of shame
And in it lies a wretched man, Eaten by teeth of flame
In a burning winding-sheet he lies, And his grave has got no name
And there, till Christ call forth the dead,
In silence let him lie:
No need to waste a foolish tear Or heave the windy sigh.
A man had killed the thing he loved So he had to die.
And all men kill the thing they love By all let this be heard,
Some do it with a bitter look, Some with a flattering word.
The coward does it with a kiss, The brave man with a sword.
I think the ballad of Reading Gaol is one of his best works,
actually, and this notion...
..of each man killing the thing they love...
..is you know, him at his most brilliant and fascinating
and even if you don't quite know
what it means, it really is one of those examples of poetry that really
makes you, when you hear it, think, "Oh, what is that?"
Your whole brain starts working.
"Dear Bosie. After long and fruitless waiting,
"I have determined to write to you myself,
"as much for your sake as for mine,
"as I would not like to think I had passed through two long years of
"imprisonment without ever having received a single line from you,
"or any news or message, even,
"except such as gave me pain.
"Our ill-fated and most lamentable friendship has ended in ruin and
"public infamy for me.
"Yet the memory of our ancient affection is often with me.
"And the thought that loathing, bitterness and contempt should
"forever take that place in my heart once held by love...
"..is very sad to me."
The amazing thing is, here we are, in this room where...
..maybe not at this table, but at a table just like it,
De Profundis was written.
Tell me the story behind De Profundis.
De Profundis is his reckoning with Alfred Douglas.
A very long letter describing their relationship and his life in prison.
It's an extraordinary letter.
And you can see in the original where it's tear-stained and...
..it's a great piece of writing from his point of view because he cuts
away at all the kind of...
..brocade that he's known for.
And it's beautifully, beautifully written.
Why is it you've been so, I don't know if I'd say obsessed or
preoccupied with Oscar Wilde for so long?
I don't think it's a thing of identity, I think it's the thing of...
I find the story very romantic and I find that whole notion of
19th-century morality compared to our own one,
our own changing moral sense now,
because we're becoming puritanical again, in a way.
He's still a very vibrant figure to me,
particularly since homosexuality is still a capital offence
in some parts of the world and is...
It's not, it's not a done and dusted...
..thing.
Rupert's film focuses on Wilde's short life after prison.
When Oscar was released, London became an unbearable hell for him.
And so he set sail for northern France,
where Rupert has now come to look for locations.
Wait, wait, wait! You've gone too far.
I'm paying oneself for everything, you see.
My investment has already been ginormous.
The budget still isn't sorted.
And there's no sign of that happening.
But Rupert's recce-ing anyway.
Perhaps by retracing Wilde's footsteps,
he can get deeper inside the mind of his hero.
I'm trying to think of atmosphere at the moment
and imagining someone like Oscar Wilde who'd been in the Cafe Royal
every day up until prison.
He got out of prison at six in the morning.
And took the packet ship over to Dieppe,
arriving in Dieppe at about 4.30 in the morning.
He arrives alone.
He wants to stop being gay, he considers being gay a vice now.
But as he says right at the beginning of my film,
which is a quote from him,
he says he is obsessed by ruin and destruction.
He can't stop himself from running towards it.
I was excited when I found this because I knew it was it when I came
down the road and then I came up, and then I saw the thing that said
"Saint Oscar Wilde," so it must be it.
It's sad, isn't it?
It's such a weird place, it's like a kind of junkie paradise.
But imagine how lost and out of the way he must've been.
When you're sitting here on a June evening and remembering, like,
the first lights and everything of your old life, and this valley,
completely empty, really.
And the glittering life he had and the children,
the wife and everyone loving him and wanting to hear more from him,
and then just ending up in this tiny little hotel, hidden away because he
couldn't stay in Dieppe because there were too many English people
spitting on him and stuff.
Just here, I think it's very, very tragic
and this place is still quite tragic.
He made terrible mistakes, really catastrophic mistakes,
and the payment was just intense.
And so the fall is just very, very touching.
He's a real punctuation point between the two centuries.
And the patron saint of many things,
the patron saint of the fallen celebrity, the patron saint of homosexuals,
homosexuality, really.
The gay movement started with him, really.
Or around that time.
So it's an important story, it feels important to me.
The funding that HAS been secured is from Belgium and Germany,
and the cash is given on condition that shooting takes place in those
countries. We're still ahead of schedule. Ice cream and then back?
However, here we are in France, and all because Rupert is determined to
shoot in the places Oscar actually visited...
..no matter the cost.
It's bigger than I remember it.
"And when you feel the dreadful bite of all your failures...
"..and hear the taunting of unachievable, uncaring God...
"..I will whisper my name,
"Antonio Salieri, patron saint of mediocrity.
"And in the depths of your downcastness, you can pray to me
"and I will forgive you."
After this and before making the film,
I'm taking part in a play in Chichester of Amadeus.
And I'm playing Salieri.
Hopefully you'll be there filming on the first night,
the warm hand on my opening.
HE CHUCKLES
TANNOY: May I please ask you to ensure that all mobile telephones
are switched off before entering the auditorium.
Have you ever done that before, taken all your hair off?
Yes, I used to go to these gay skinhead conventions in Leipzig,
in Germany. Really, what were they like? Fabulous.
What would happen there? Sex.
The lucky thing for me is it's been a great success, which I wasn't expecting.
It's had amazing reviews.
Great reviews.
I think they gave me the benefit of the doubt, the critics, which is very,
very nice of them because if they'd reviewed me badly after my
spectacular success as Oscar Wilde,
I think it would have committed me to a kind of oddity
dinosaur-slash-graveyard kind of existence.
But, as it happened,
even the most hardened critics gave me some nice reviews and I'm really,
really grateful, actually.
Because it's exactly what I needed to keep going.
And now, generous ladies, obliging gentlemen,
I present to you for one performance only,
my last composition, entitled The Death Of Mozart.
Or, Did I Do It?
LAUGHTER
Dedicated to posterity on this, the last hour of my life.
Ladies and gentlemen, this is your quarter hour call,
quarter of an hour, please. Thank you.
The film is going pretty good.
Is the money in place?
The money is in place, yeah. We're pretty much set up for next March,
starting to shoot. And I feel really good about it all.
HE SHOUTS
One of the things you've got to understand about showbusiness
in general is that it's, a lot of it's about enthusiasm
and what you want to happen. And between the enthusiasm and what you
want to happen and reality is,
you know, often where, you know, the crack through which people tumble.
Back in March 2015,
Rupert's film got a green light and began production in a German film
studio, but after just one day, it fell through.
Now the light is gone from green to red.
The precariously balanced cast has fallen apart.
And Rupert has been battling pneumonia.
I was in my office in the studio,
feeling like Cecil B DeMille for one afternoon
and then, as usual, the whole thing went wrong.
First of all, the German producers had not really been...
..clear with us about how much the budget for the film was.
And I brought on...
..what's called a line producer to go through it.
And we realised that the budget had gone up to,
the film I wanted to make was about 14 million euros and a half.
Which was nothing like what we had.
To cut a long story short,
we managed to get the budget down to ten and a half million euros.
And then the German producers kind of admitted that they only really
had eight and a half anyway.
Then I realised that...
..there were so many production costs on top of the budget,
part of the budget was these huge costs that they'd put in for
development of the film and all these things they hadn't really done,
then I pulled the plug.
I don't know whether we can have any of this in the documentary because
if the film gets made, they'll all be on the podium with me
receiving the Raspberry Award or whatever it is.
Very discreet.
PHONE MESSAGE: I have to say this has been a very tough year for me.
Because it's just been setback after setback.
As soon as I got one bit of finance confirmed, another bit would fall through.
Whatever he feels, yes, yes. Otherwise, yeah, I'd love to meet him.
PHONE MESSAGE: And then have cast members going off on other jobs,
agents trying to cancel on me.
The whole thing has just been one disaster after another.
Oui. Ca va.
But, you know, these are the things that one has to develop a vagina of
steel so that one doesn't get, you know,
fucked so much that one can't walk any more.
Interview, TV Monde.
Now, finally, I must have done something saintly in a former life
because suddenly just a few weeks ago, everything started falling into place for me and, finally,
just yesterday, we got confirmation that the last bit of the
budget is in place, so it's on, we are go.
And then we're going on Monday to wherever it is, Brussels.
Of course...
..the whole film might turn out to be completely shit.
Finally, Rupert Everett has caught the dream he's been chasing
for ten years. The Happy Prince is in production.
The shoot has begun, and he's a first-time movie director, aged 58.
Not forgetting the screenwriter and the star.
He's up against it with a very tight, ambitious schedule.
42 packed filming days across four countries.
He's back in the fat suit.
Can someone zip me up?
And, amazingly, he's managed to hold on to his stellar cast.
Emily Watson and Colin Firth, alongside Tom Wilkinson,
Miranda Richardson and John Standing.
It's all coming together.
It is absolutely marvellous to do it, because it's a stunning script.
So... It is.
Here we are. Here we are. Two old queens. Two old queens,
sitting on the wall.
I don't even care now if it's a terrible film.
Really? No.
Because the thing is most films are terrible in the end,
and a lot of that is about the compromise that you're forced,
again and again, there's just one compromise after another and,
you know, you say you wanted to have a ball for 500 people,
it ends up being a party for 20.
And, you know, these things
that I feel very sympathetic about now.
And now I look at films that are bad
that I would have looked at before and gone, "This is crap,
"I want my money back," and I kind of sit there going, "Oh, how sweet!
"Look at this party for 20, it was probably, you know, an amazing,
"you know, ball in the royal palace at Saint Petersburg originally,
"and now it ended up being a pub scene."
OK, where's the fake spittle?
Could Olivier, special effects, join us, please?
Your spit. Now?
Yeah, now is the spit moment.
OK.
Once? No, four or five, just go on doing it.
OK, stand by. Action.
Clapping and clapping and yeah...
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
The scene today is the scene at Clapham Junction station,
where Oscar Wilde was taken, handcuffed to a warden, from prison,
to hear his bankruptcy case, after he'd been convicted of gross indecency.
In reality, a crowd gathered round him and, in reality,
a kind of drunk started shouting abuse at him.
Fucking pervert!
I beg your pardon, madam. The things he's saying are actually very much
what people, how people talk now, in a way, about other things, you know,
"our children, our kiddies, our women."
I think there's some kind of parallel between then and now
in many areas of the film.
Now, the thing is here, also, the men, everyone's got to join in with this
and be, kind of, more involved.
You're all looking dead. You've all got to, you all agree with this man,
you all think he's saying exactly the right thing, and the men,
they've got to kind of support him and go with him when he says all this,
because that's what's going to make it work. So a bit of noise, yeah...
I'll have a fucking go, I'll have a fucking go!
We're all waiting for the fucking train...
No, OK, sir, when he says, "Oscar Wilde,"
you must look at me as Oscar Wilde... Oh...
That's what's happening, we're doing le moment ou il dit,
"C'est Oscar Wilde". Vous regardez Oscar Wilde.
Keep rolling. Roger?
Roger? Thank you.
I've been vile to everybody.
I'm like a terrible despot
that's been on the rampage.
Toby, Patrick was too early.
Who's cueing him? OK. He didn't take his cue, I've told him to wait.
OK, good, OK.
But, at the same time...
..well, that's how it is, you know?
It's very difficult to act and direct together.
I find.
Without losing it about eight times a day.
Pas trop, mais non, c'est trop.
Non, mais non, c'est trop.
Regardez, voila le camera,
et voila les personnes principaux.
Vous, monsieur, beaucoup vous allez a votre... Oui.
Et - oui. Oui, oui.
OK, ready.
Ready?
'Ello, 'ello, 'ello.
What have we here?
Poor bugger!
What you in for?
What's he done, then?
None of your fucking business, now piss off.
Hello, hello... I've seen him somewhere.
Don't tell me, let me guess, it's Oscar bleedin' Wilde!
What's he doing out?
There are women here, and kiddies!
We're all waiting for the fucking train, and we've got to wait with that!
Fucking pervert! CROWD MURMURS IN AGREEMENT
Sorry, madam.
Backs to the wall, boys! LAUGHTER
People like you need castrating.
Cutting it right off and stuffing it right back down your own fucking throat!
ALL: Yeah, yeah.
Disgusting!
HE GAGS
HE SPITS
Cut, great!
OK, good.
INAUDIBLE CHATTING
You're a vision in blue.
There you are, Oscar.
We're late.
They're waiting for us.
Which are the bits you've enjoyed?
Enjoyment's not really my thing, Alan.
I've never enjoyed anything since puberty, really, much
because I'm basically a whiner.
My stomach is a mess, my chest is a mess, my shoulders are a mess,
I'm just, literally...
..half dead. Let's follow them.
But for me, it's the only film I'm ever going to make,
so I'm just not prepared to compromise.
Great, very good, very good. Let's move on.
Good.
Well, the fact that you've got a very significant budget for a first-time director. Mm.
And you've managed to get not just one producer...
And an actor on the skids, me.
Yeah. Yeah, so no, all that was very lucky but, I mean, that's,
I've also got to thank my actors, and in particular Colin,
because Colin signed up to take part in the film eight years ago
when he wasn't quite as successful as he is now,
and I would be waving this piece of paper at him as, you know,
he went from Oscar nomination to Oscar recipient,
and he has, amazingly...
..stuck by me and, really, the whole thing is down to him.
Rupert's naughty streak saw him gleefully stoke up rumours of a feud
between him and Colin in his memoirs.
This is intolerable!
But Colin, or Collywobbles, as Rupert calls him,
is having none of it.
I'm very happy for people to... I love the idea of a feud.
I don't think I've ever had one.
Well, he's used it in his books, as well, though, hasn't he...
Has he said there was a feud?
No, he's quite mean about me in, well, or is he?
I don't know, I don't know...
He's made stuff up, though, about all the guitarist...
Oh, it's outrageous. No, no, yes, he described me as a ghastly,
guitar-strumming, red-brick socialist.
He's... Which is, I think, quite fair in spirit.
But, nevertheless, he came up with this extraordinary script
and I thought it was one of the best scripts I had ever read.
And that view was shared by quite a lot of people.
Get out! And then, basically, you sheepishly...
I don't know how he's managing this.
To write it, be in it and direct it, there are very,
very few people who have done all three.
You know, there are a few people out there who are doing it,
but it's an exhausting and lonely process, I think.
What's the hurry, Oscar?
What more do you want?! What more do you want?!
You've taken everything, you little shits, everything!
My family, my home, my freedom, everything!
There's nothing else to take!
Go back to England, that's the land of the hypocrite, go back there!
I didn't know you had it in you.
I don't.
I have nothing in me.
Not even fear.
HE SIGHS
I can't go on, I feel like a chicken that has been pecked to death.
I've been working now since seven o'clock this morning,
and it's now seven o'clock at night, and just people asking me questions,
nonstop, trying to act, trying to remember my lines,
trying to direct the actors, trying to organise everything,
and I can't now go into really talking about things, I just can't.
I've got nothing to say.
I just can't.
I just can't, I just can't.
It's the last day today.
Thank God.
It might be a load of shit.
No, it won't. Well, you never know with a film. It could be...
..ponderous, it could be up itself, it could be all these things.
And then, of course, it could be fabulous, but you never really know,
I don't think, until it's all put together.
OK.
There we are. Thank you. Thank you very much.
God, I'm sick of all this!
Wilde's most famous relationship is the tempestuous,
destructive love affair he had with Lord Alfred Douglas, or Bosie,
played by Colin Morgan.
Oscar!
But by the end of his life,
the person Oscar wanted beside him was faithful, devoted,
generous Robbie Ross.
Robbie!
For Rupert, Robbie, played by Edwin Thomas,
is the real romantic hero of the story.
Oscar and Robbie are buried together.
Good, very good.
Thanks, guys. That's the end.
OK, thank you.
Thanks.
Thank you very much, that's a wrap!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Thank fuck for that.
Thank you. Well done.
Well done. We did it.
It's finally time for The Happy Prince to meet the public and the press.
After four months in the darkness of the cutting room, Rupert emerges,
somewhat dazed and exhausted,
into the snow of the Sundance Film Festival in Park City, Utah.
He's accompanied by Colin Morgan, Edwin Thomas,
a posse of producers and press officers
and a copy of the finished film.
I'm very excited for you.
Thank you. And congratulations.
Why? You haven't seen the film yet. It could be awful.
Your first directorial debut. Oh, yeah. I'm very excited for you. I know, it's amazing.
The industry spotlight shines hard on Sundance.
Rupert's here to create a buzz and take every media opportunity that
comes his way. Is it strange, directing yourself?
No, very nice. I'm my favourite director.
A whole decade after Everett wrote the script,
and five years since we started to document his creative journey,
The Happy Prince is about to have its first public screening.
I must say, I feel quite pleased about it and...
..it was what I aimed at it to be, so that's something.
Do you want to direct again?
Erm... I've got lots of things I would like to do, but I would be...
I'm quite philosophical because I think at this age,
I'm already 68.
No, not 68, 58 years old!
And if it took me another ten years to get to first base,
I'd be nearly 70.
So that's not on.
It's time.
Rupert's going to make the final checks...
..before the public comes in.
And he worships a large crystal. "Swallow, swallow, little
"swallow," said the happy prince.
"You tell me of marvellous things that are more marvellous than this."
It's the suffering of men and women.
There is no mystery so great as suffering.
There's always, you know, there's always things that you just worry about
and wonder about. Particularly in an audience like here.
I don't know what the audience will be like, actually.
Hopefully, they'll be kind!
CHEERING AND APPLAUSE
Let's get a drink.
You did so well. Thank you very much. It's so good. It's really so stunning.
Really? You are sweet. Thank you very much.
It's such an honour to meet you. Oh, thank you very much.
I loved your film, every part. Thank you very much.
Well done, darling.
OK, this is a review from The Guardian.
All right. The headline is The Happy Prince review -
Rupert Everett is magnificent in dream role as dying Oscar Wilde.
Four stars. Directed and starring Everett,
this poignant dramatization of Wilde's final years in exile
is a powerful parable of passion and redemption.
This film is a deeply felt, tremendously acted tribute to courage.
Ooh! Very good review.
Why's that only four stars, then?
Hang on a minute.
Hi, everyone. Here you are.
Rupert!
Hi, there.
Alan! Yes.
What are you doing here? He's got...
Are we reduced to filming the documentary on an iPhone now?
No, actually... Is that the state of the BBC?
Yes, actually, can I just say to you, I would like back my...
..my camera, what's happened to the camera we gave you?
What camera? What do you mean what camera?!
I gave you a camera.
Oh, that one you gave me years ago?
Yes, years ago.
Oh, erm... Well, I think it's in my house.
And how much...? Have you used it?
Well, Alan, you know I'm not very good with machines and computers.
I can't even, um,
I can't even do that start-up TV thing where you stop the TV.
I can't... I know, but the whole idea was that you were going to
use it to film some sequences.
I know, but the thing was I tried to get my boyfriend interested...
I remember. And he just...
I don't know, I could never get him to do it.
I was going to do it, that's right.
I remember now, I was going to do a nightly video diary.
And did you?
Well, no.