Rupert Everett Decries 'Cinematic Wokery' In 'Puritanical' Climate, Says He Hate-Watches ‘Hacks'

Yahoo

13-06-2025

British actor Rupert Everett, who is on the jury at the Taormina Film Festival, spoke candidly — at some points seriously and others more drolly — this afternoon on a number of topics ranging from his thoughts on the industry today to the threat of AI and how his tastes in consuming content run to 'things I don't really like to watch.'
Charming the assembled film students and accredited attendees, Everett kicked off the conversation in Italian, talking about his experience with Francesco Rosi on 1987's Chronicle of a Death Foretold and the 2019 mini The Name of the Rose, which shot at Cinecittà.
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Then, asked about the state of the industry, Everett pivoted more so to television than cinema and said: 'I think for me it's not having a very good moment because I preferred the world of entertainment when it was a little bit less puritanical. I feel that now we've got into a world where everybody's so easily offended by anything that anybody does that the result is that everything is completely predictable, and as a result really quite boring. Also, everything is very good because now everyone knows how to reference Visconti for this or Truffaut for that and put it all together — and all these series, they're all good. But I don't feel for me there's personality behind a lot of things, there's just this horrible political movement of kind of cinematic wokery which I really don't like. I think it's as bad as the 4th century Christians in the Roman Empire, they're destroying everything.'
Taormina jury member Rupert Everett laments 'cinematic wokery' in today's 'puritanical' society pic.twitter.com/yut65evCp0
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) June 13, 2025
When queried about what content he enjoys, the multiple BAFTA and Golden Globe nominee said: 'I like to watch things I really don't like. For example, I've been watching this series called Hacks recently, and I really hate every single episode. Each episode I hate more than the last one, but I can't stop watching, so I enjoy that.'
Taormina Film Festival jury member Rupert Everett talks hate-watching TV, and cites 'Hacks' but says he can't stop watching pic.twitter.com/yEP2J0o1Qe
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) June 13, 2025
On the subject of AI, Everett mused that it poses a threat to actors, saying: 'I'm sure eventually they'll be able to do all the acting and we'll have to go and do something else. I'm going to become an intimacy director. It's a very easy job, you do three weeks training and then you can tell everybody what to do on a film.'
Rupert Everett on the threat of AI to actors and jokes about becoming an intimacy director #TaorminaFilmFestival pic.twitter.com/MDU0PMP3I5
— Deadline (@DEADLINE) June 13, 2025
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