Actor Rupert Everett developed a fat suit with an artist in London for his Oscar Wilde look in new film The Happy Prince.
The My Best Friend's Wedding star gave up his vanity as he prepared to play the aged, bloated writer at the end of his life in the movie, which Everett also wrote and directed, and he decided that rather than put on weight, he'd create the perfect layered look for Wilde.
"I had this amazing suit, made by this artist in London and he makes all the big fat suits for Hollywood and they're not just fat suits, they all have different textures," the actor tells WENN. "So you have fabulous low hanging moves (sic) made of one thing and you have a lovely low hanging a**, which feels just like an a**. And these different layers for the stomach, so that it moves properly.
"I developed that with him (artist) when I did a play of Oscar trying to drum up some money."
Rupert also shaved his head for the role, so he'd look like the ageing Wilde from every angle: "I had thin wigs, so you can see a little bit of scalp underneath my hair," he explains. "I imagined him being like a comic clown because he is a tragic comedic character. There's something about him that's slightly Charlie Chaplin-esque with all the tragedy in him of a clown as well. The look of it was very important to me, getting that bedraggled look right..."
And once he'd perfected the look, Everett became a "sleuth" and poured over books and letters in an effort to perfect his Wilde, who was persecuted and imprisoned for being gay.
"I read tons of books and discovered how he became such a huge star and what happened when he became a big star," he explains. "All the other stories shied away from the responsibility of looking at what society actually did to this man for the crime of being homosexual.
"For me, the story that was interesting to tell is almost like the passion of Oscar Wilde, going through prison and this so-called liberty which ended up constraining him more and more. For me, it was a very inspiring story."
