Ahead of his new Oscar Wilde biopic The Happy Prince being released in cinemas, Rupert Everett has discussed the vital role Wilde played in the gay liberation movement.
Everett - whose 10-year quest to create a film about Wilde has been followed by the BBC for the documentary Born to be Wilde - believes there's even a connection between the famous poet/playwright and RuPaul's Drag Race.
“I think there is a connection between Drag Race and Oscar Wilde,” he said in an interview with Attitude magazine, noting "that performance level and that irony towards your own kind... is what Wilde was about. That tongue-in-cheek thing, which drag queens still have but the rest of us aren’t allowed anymore.”
“There couldn’t be anyone like Wilde now because there wasn’t such a thing as gay people when Wilde was around, which is why he’s so important to us,” he continued, adding: “The gay liberation movement really starts with Oscar Wilde."
He finished: "In one sense, he’s the centre of what we’re living now.”
Focusing on Wilde’s exile from London following his two-year prison term for “gross indecency”, The Happy Prince is a culmination of a decade of behind-the-scenes work for Everett.
A synopsis for the film reads: “Out of prison but a pariah, Wilde swings between grief and a determination to wrest whatever pleasure and beauty he can from the time he has left."
“His body ailing and heavy, his mind spinning, he survives by falling back on the flamboyant irony and brilliant wit that defined him.”
“Everett’s Wilde is tortured but determined to remain true to himself. His thoughts are filled with love and betrayal and permeated with those closest to him: Bosie, his literary agent Robbie Ross, his great friend Reggie Turner and his estranged wife Constance."
Academy Award-winner Colin Filth stars as Wilde's friend Reggie Turner, with the cast rounded out by Colin Morgan, Emily Watson, Tom Wilkinson, Anna Chancellor and Edwin Thomas.
You can watch the trailer for The Happy Prince below:
