Rupert Everett: Oscar Wilde was better than Jesus
Oscar Wilde was “better than Christ” because he was more convincingly human, the actor Rupert Everett has said.
Everett, who plays Wilde in his new film The Happy Prince, said the he found the weaknesses of the late writer “tremendously appealing and touching”.
Asked about Wilde’s reputation as a “gay Christ figure”, Everett said: “For me, he's better than Christ because he's half God with his talent, and his human side - which Christ never quite pulled off except having his feet washed by Mary Magdalene - is very human.
“Greed, ego, vanity, snobbery. All the things that brought him down, I find tremendously appealing and touching, because most of us have all these qualities and most of us get away with it.”
Speaking on the Andrew Marr show as he publicised the film, Everett described Wilde as one of the earliest celebrities, “famous for being famous” before enduring a very public downfall.
“For me, the most exciting part of Wilde's life is after prison and the idea of this fallen star living in cheap hotels, cadging drinks on the boulevard, toothless, smelling of sweat and pee a little bit - the last great vagabond of the 19th century - it's an amazing story,” he said.
“One sees celebrity nowadays going to amazing extremes. And he was the first - or maybe the second after Byron - person who was famous for being famous, that people looked out of windows to see them pass by.
“He got so grand that he thought at one point ‘the working classes are behind me to a boy’. And he was wrong.”
The Happy Prince tells the story of Wilde in his final days, living in exile about public disgrace after his imprisonment for “gross indecency”.
The Telegraph awarded the film three stars, with critic Tim Robey calling Everett's performance as Wilde "an uncompromising feat of empathy in the role he’s made his own more than any other".
