Rupert Everett said he had a “big personality” when he first started in the industry, but feels his career has been hampered by a lack of attention.
The 64-year-old actor began his professional career playing a gay public school student in the West End production of Another Country in 1981 alongside Sir Kenneth Branagh, with Daniel Day-Lewis and Colin Firth later taking on his role as Guy Bennett.
Reflecting on the challenges of rising to fame, he told The Times’s Saturday Review: “Anyone who succeeds is something of a genius. And Kenneth made it work.”
Everett starred in the 1997 film My Best Friend’s Wedding alongside Julia Roberts and Cameron Diaz, and with Cate Blanchett and Minnie Driver in the 1999 film An Ideal Husband.
The actor also voiced Prince Charming in the TV series Shrek and recently starred in the film My Cop, which also starred Harry Styles, Emma Corrin and David Dawson.
Sir Kenneth has also enjoyed a successful career, receiving numerous Oscar nominations as an actor and director and finally winning Best Original Screenplay for his film Belfast last year.
Discussing his career at the newspaper, Everett said: “Compared to Kenneth Branagh? What a mess.
“I had a lot of personality and something raw, but I never learned to concentrate and, looking back, for me it was all about sex. All.”
He said that engaging in multiple sexual relationships felt like “freedom” at first, but later realized it had become a “prison”, adding: “It was an appetite that couldn’t be satisfied except to just build up momentum.”
Everett disagreed with the suggestion that this late behavior was caused by his being sent to boarding school as a young man.
“It was hormones related to the need to become something,” he said.
“I don’t think it was due to a lack of love in childhood.
“Part of it was just wanting to assert what you consider to be your star quality.
“And what was interesting about sex for me was that as soon as I felt unattractive, I felt that sex was unattractive.
“So at the end of the day, it was just about me.”
Now the actor is in a long-term relationship with his partner Enrique.
Everett remains active in the industry, including playing a theatrical agent opposite Gemma Arterton in the drama series Funny Woman earlier this year and starring in the upcoming theater production A Trip Around My Father.
However, the actor openly talks about his feelings about death, saying: “The prospect of it all ending and me dying?
“I really feel encouraged by this.”