A beloved actor from the Shrek franchise has revealed that his dedication to getting in shape for movie roles over the years has come at a cost, leaving him “almost crippled.”
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Rupert Everett, who voiced the villainous Prince Charming in the Shrek franchise, recently opened up about the physical toll his career has taken on his body.
“I ruined myself,” the 67-year-old recently told The Guardian. “Now I’m almost crippled as a result. I could never be bothered to do all those things, like stretching, which were necessary for lifting weights, because your tendons get tighter and tighter. So boring. I didn’t do any of that. So now my demise will be musculoskeletal, I think.”
Everett also implied that all that work only resulted in one peak fitness year…
“I was wonderful-looking at one point,” the My Best Friend’s Wedding actor continued. “I had muscles. Everything. It was quite short-lived. I call it my Hollywood year.”
However, before the A Midsummer Night’s Dream actor dedicated himself to fitness, he was more than happy to take a shortcut or two.
Everett confessed to some clever trickery to enhance his physique for the screen. “I met these [guys] in [North London] who made bodysuits, and they made me a false bottom, false calves, false shoulders, false everything,” he recalled. The best part was that the directors were none the wiser. Everett pointed out that he would “go into the fittings for the costumes with all my things on.”
Rupert Everett Admits the Vanity of His Younger Years Led to an Empty Experience in Hollywood
Despite his efforts, the Shrek alum admitted that his Hollywood career was “quite short-lived” and ultimately unsatisfying.
“I was just obsessed about getting on rather than doing my job,” Rupert told The Guardian. “I always felt I was missing out on some mythical life that was taking place somewhere else. That was my problem.”
“Even work was about cruising, trying to be attractive,” Rupert added. “Which obviously came from the feeling of not being attractive enough.”
“My vanity for me wasn’t about ‘Mirror, mirror on the wall, who’s the fairest of them all?’” he continued, somewhat channeling his Shrek character. “Vanity is often a feeling of deep insecurity rather than feeling how fabulous I am.”
Meanwhile, Everett found his happily ever after, marrying his longtime partner, Brazilian accountant Henrique, in 2024.
Everett can currently be seen on the new season of the period comedy Rivals, streaming on Disney+.