Rupert Everett Blasts This Beloved Film Franchise as a 'Cultural Cancer'

Rupert Everett has built a reputation that's as much about his sharp wit and scandalous commentary as it is about his acting. The man who once famously described Madonna as a “whiny old barmaid” has never been shy about sharing his unfiltered thoughts on the film industry. While his own career hasn't always hit critical high marks—a situation he attributes to his sexuality, while others might point to self-sabotage—Everett firmly believes in his right to judge. And in his view, one celebrated film series stands out as a particularly damaging force.

Hollywood's Devalued Currency

In a fiery interview with The Independent years ago, Everett launched into a tirade about how the movie business has cheapened the craft of acting, with George Clooney unexpectedly catching the brunt of it. “Clooney thinks that, provided he does films which are politically committed, he’s allowed to do Ocean’s Eleven, Twelve and Thirteen,” Everett stated. He didn't stop there, adding, “But the Oceans movies are a cancer to world culture. They’re destroying us.”

In 2025, with a constant stream of sequels and AI-generated content, that take might seem extreme; Ocean’s Eleven almost looks like a boutique arthouse film by comparison. At the time, however, Everett saw Clooney's blockbuster heist movies as proof that Hollywood was more fixated on things like “Jennifer Lopez’s bottom” than on serious global issues like the war in Iraq.

Taking Aim at Legends

Of all the juicy gossip and questionable political takes Everett has offered up, his assessment of Clooney and director Steven Soderbergh felt particularly bold. After all, what gives the star of St. Trinian’s and the Shrek sequels the right to critique such industry giants? But he didn't limit his judgment to them. He also had the nerve to pull icons like Diane Keaton, Robert De Niro, and Al Pacino into his rant.

Everett expressed disbelief that these legendary actors would stoop to becoming caricatures of their former selves in the high-paying, family-friendly projects they gravitated toward later in their careers. He accused Keaton of “debasing” herself with the movie Because I Said So and dismissed Al Pacino as a “mad old freak now”.

A Complicated Messenger

Let's face it, these critiques might sound a bit hypocritical coming from an actor who was recently part of a cultural phenomenon like Emily in Paris. Yet, his points aren't completely without merit. Many of the greats from a bygone era have indeed been around long enough to become the very thing they might have once criticized. This includes Everett himself, a self-proclaimed “gay-champagne-socialist” who has since adopted anti-immigrant stances. But through it all, he seems to understand his own place in this cultural decline, often using the pronoun ‘We’ when he talks about the people responsible for it.

With all this talk of cultural decay and the supposed death of art, there's something refreshing about it all. It's honestly great to know that in a world full of grim realities, someone out there genuinely believes that St. Trinian’s contributed more to cinema than Ocean’s Eleven. For a certain generation of women who grew up on 2000s teen movies, he might even have a point.