Global Fund ‘ambassador’ Rupert Everett talks to Martin
Flynn about corruption in Cambodia and being one of Hollywood’s
few openly gay stars
Prince
OF FAR FAR AWAY
Rupert Everett has a reputation. He is known as a ‘difficult’
actor with famous friends and strong opinions who doesn’t suffer fools
gladly. He is very English and remarkably successful in homophobic Hollywood.
His acting career is currently reaching new heights with recent starring roles
in Stage Beauty and Shrek II, following hits like My Best Friend’s Wedding
and The Madness of King George.
Rupert was brought up in rural Norfolk, the son of a stockbroker, and was
packed off to boarding school at the tender age of seven. After attending
the Catholic public school Ampleforth, where the late Cardinal Basil Hume
was headmaster, he went on to be expelled from the Central School of Speech
and Drama.
He got his break as an actor in the 1984 film Another Country, about communist
spies at Eton. But it was in the celebrity-obsessed 1990s that he became the ‘token acceptable Hollywood fag’ (his own words) and friend to
the rich and kitsch, including Madonna, Julia Roberts and the absurd Donatella
Versace.
But even as his movie career blossomed, and was seen by many as overly pumped-up,
physically and egotistically, he recognised he had another path to follow:
joining the worldwide battle against HIV and Aids. When we met at the Bangkok
World Aids conference this summer, he had just returned from acting as Global
Fund ambassador in Cambodia and was obviously relishing his new role.
What is going on with the Fund?
“It is daunting for me as an actor speaking about Aids. There is a struggle
going on the ground and the Global Fund is actually finding it harder now
to spend money than to raise it.
“The challenge is to figure out how to get the money to the right people,
right now. And we need a global consensus to fast-track antiretroviral therapy
to the third world.”
He admits that the Global Fund faces big problems, but sees it as “our
best chance.”
“The Global Fund is the only organisation large enough which responds
to the direct needs of people. I believe in its ideas and ideals but we’re
drowning in a sea of international red tape at the moment.”
How did you get involved in Aids work? Was it because of gay friends
with the virus?
“Quite by accident. Four years ago I was returning from filming a documentary
for Oxfam in Ethiopia and I met a woman who runs an HIV project in the slums
of Nairobi and she asked me to help raise money for her work.
“What amazed me was just how much could be done with just a little money.
It was inspiring. And when I attended the World Aids Conference in Barcelona
in 2002 I started raising money for lots of little HIV organisations around
the world.”
The response to HIV and Aids by some showbiz stars over the last 20
years has been fantastic in raising awareness and money. But what is it like
to be an openly gay Hollywood actor?
“It would be very tough to be an openly HIV positive actor in Hollywood.
Being an openly gay actor is hard enough. The actor’s life is as important
as the actor’s role. And to be an openly gay and openly HIV positive
actor you would have to give acting up.
“The best thing an actor can do is to go to places, observe, ask questions
and tell as many people as possible what he sees and hears.
Do you think there’s a blocking of HIV treatments to the world’s
poor?
“I’m not an expert, but access to HIV treatments is the big problem
and there seems to be a bottleneck in getting the drugs to those who need
them most. It is all rather Kafkaesque. The ins and outs of drug procurement,
patent rights and all the delay between the Global Fund agreeing to give the
money and the moment the pills go into someone’s mouth is very long
and complicated and very frustrating.”
“There are lots of reasons for this. There are problems with the donors,
enormous technical and logistical problems on the ground as well as corruption
in many countries. The Global Fund is having teething problems, but it remains
our best chance of actually saving lives.”
What were you doing in Cambodia?
“Visiting centres that the Fund is starting to put money into, seeing
how they’re going and looking at the situation there - which isn’t
good.
“In a country like Cambodia, all the government functionaries buy their
positions. The Global Fund has adopted a zero risk policy so they don’t
take a risk with their money. It has to be very careful that the money is
used properly and responsibly.
“The Fund needs governments to be a 50/50 partner. Where this doesn’t
work, because of blockages or corruption, there are delays in getting the
drugs to those who desperately need them.
“And a lot of HIV organisations are filled with people with enormous
egos who are often defensive, untrusting and defamatory of others.”
What, worse than Hollywood?
“Not as different as you would imagine. I think the general layman would
be very shocked.
“Everyone ends up in raucous discussions and fury and I don’t
think it’s the right way of going about things. We need to step back
a bit, see the big picture and stop all the arguments, blocking and corruption.”
How do you feel about British and US responses to the Global Fund?
“Of course we welcome the extra new money from the UK to the Global
Fund. But America is acting as a saboteur. You get the feeling the US wants
to control the shit out of it. They keep going on that they’re not going
to give any more money to the Fund unless everyone else does.
“I think America is very deluded about the amount of aid they give to
the world in general. They think they just give and give and give. But often
what they give are not gifts but paybacks. There’s always political
or economic strings attached. They’re very control-oriented and they
want to protect their own drug companies. The US wants every HIV patient to
be the president’s patient and that’s how they see it.”
Why have the younger stars of music and movies not followed the older
generation of people like Elizabeth Taylor, George Michael and Elton John
in charity work for Aids?
“I don’t think they’d like to be thought of as older! But
one thing about music and film careers now is that they are much shorter and
many careers are over in two or three years. Even if they were well-informed
and well-directed it doesn’t give them much time to get involved.”
Positive Nation has a large gay readership. What would your message
be to them?
“Don’t bareback. I understand where it comes from and the frustration,
but the basic message to get over to gay men is be safe.
“It’s not correct to say that HIV treatments are a cure. It’s
not true that just because you’ve got an undetectable viral load and
the other person has a zero viral load you’re not going to get re-infected.
“We need to educate the younger generation of gay men because many think
that living with HIV is a real doddle. They don’t realise that there’s
no cure; it’s treatment for life and the meds can have horrible side-effects.
“One of the things that has haunted this disease is that it is sexually
transmitted and people are either not prepared to be honest about prevention
or treat people with the virus like shit.
“Visiting Cambodia showed me that Buddhism enables people to be very
accepting. The tolerance, acceptance and compassion I saw in Cambodia was
very striking compared with the reaction to people with HIV in Christian countries
and this was very impressive.
“In the West we should practise what we preach and stop condemning others.
None of us should be judging or condemning others.”
