Clooney films trash, Pacino ‘mad old freak’?
December 18, 2007Rupert Everett speaks his mind. He’s one of very, very few Hollywood leading men who’ve come out as gay (perhaps the reason the star of “My Best Friend’s Wedding” isn’t a star anymore.) And he’s not afraid to let his opinions out of the closet. On George Clooney:
“Clooney thinks that, provided he does films which are politically committed, he’s allowed to do Ocean’s 11, 12, and 13. But the Ocean’s movies are a cancer to world culture. They’re destroying us.”
Clooney the man? “He’s not the brightest spark on the boulevard. He’ll be president one day. Mark my words, if he’s straight, he’ll be president.”
On other Hollywood legends, Everett said: “De Niro, Redford, Keaton, Allen, Pacino… They’re all just tragic parodies of themselves. Al Pacino looks like a mad old freak now…The other day I saw Because I Said So with Diane Keaton, and I thought, ‘here’s one of the women we loved most in 1970s cinema, debasing and humiliating herself in this load of trash’.
“Why? Because we’re sheep, we just follow the herd … It’s just part of the huge amount of product that’s put out now that’s really bad. And it’s our fault. We’re all responsible for how the culture is. You can’t draw a distinction between the celebrity nonsense on television and the film industry.”
When I attended the AFI tribute to Al Pacino this spring, most of the attention was paid to his part in Scarface 25 years ago; forget Panic in Needle Park or the Godfather, or later films like Scent of a Woman, Heat or The Devil’s Advocate (where, admittedly, Pacino screams rather than acts.)
Pacino’s histrionics have become ripe for the kind of parody George Lopez (below) did, appearing as Scarface’s coke-laden Tony Montana.
Someone more charitable than Everett might recognize that the parts he attacks are the only ones that Hollywood will give Pacino or particularly Keaton to play these days. Keaton and Meryl Streep are just about the only American actresses of a certain age (55+) working fairly consistently in film. Even Jane Fonda’s return to film began and ended with Monster-In-Law.
But you’ve got to admire Everett’s critical cojones. As an earlier celebrity, put it, “If you don’t have anything good to say about someone, come sit by me.”
