Outspoken British actor Rupert Everett, 49, has given a new interview in England, where he calls UK troops "wimps," among other things. The "My Best Friend's Wedding" star made waves a few months ago when he called Al Pacino, Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro and Robert Redford "parodies" and the "Ocean's" movies "a cancer."
Now, while promoting a documentary about a 19th century British army officer named Richard Burton who explored a male Bombay brothel called "The Victorian Sex Explorer," Everett, whose dad was a major in the Army, gave an interview to the Telegraph:
"I did have to do cadet corps for one year at Ampleforth, but it wasn't for me. I would have liked to have been in the Army in Burton's time, because then you could more or less do what you wanted. They would give you four years off to go and explore.
"Now what do you get in the Army? Bad helmets and Basra. Your guns don't work and everyone hates you when you come back..."
"In Burton's day they were itching to get into the fray. Now it is the opposite. They are always whining about the dangers of being killed. Oh my God, they are such wimps now!
"The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed, wanting to test yourself to the limits. Now you have to fly 15,000ft above the war zone to avoid getting hit. I don't think there is any point in having wars if that's how you're going to behave. It's pathetic. All this whining!"
You can't say that, Rupert! "You can. The whole point of being in the Army is going to war and getting yourself blown up. That and p---ing on prisoners. Yet we all get shocked by Abu Ghraib. Oooh!" He puts his hand to his mouth as if scandalised.
"But that's war. If you don't like that side of it, don't do it. Of course soldiers are going to p--- on the first prisoners they take. It goes with the territory."
That's not why they do it, though, I say. If you are a British soldier risking your life in Iraq and Afghanistan, you are motivated by a sense of duty and principle.
"No, you do it because you are a nasty, jammy ---t and you want to p--- on everyone. That's what drew you to the Army and that's what they pay you for. They pay you to tie up prisoners and attach electrodes to their nipples and testicles and p--- on them. Don't let's complain that only the Americans do that. That is a horrible double standard."