We are all watching the Winter Olympics in awe of how out there our LGBT+ athletes are and it seems everyone is supporting them, well everyone that has a sound mind about themselves.
When we see tweets from our allies (Britney, Reese Witherspoon, etc.) supporting our athletes, it's truly great. Their words of encouragement show that it's all right to be gay, to be on the world's largest stage, and to represent your nation.
Words of encouragement as well as words reminding us that it isn't all great everywhere came from The Berlin International Film Festival this weekend.
Rupert Everett, the star of the new film, The Happy Prince, told a Berlin Film Festival press conference for The Happy Prince, his directorial debut about Oscar Wilde’s tragic final years, "In our world, it's great to be homosexual now. But in lots of other worlds, it's really disastrous to be homosexual — in Russia, in Uganda."
Sony Pictures Classics has acquired all North American and Latin American rights to The Happy Prince. Everett plays the great Irish writer Oscar Wilde during his last days, with his body ailing and heavy, his mind spinning — but his flamboyant irony and brilliant wit very much intact. The film follows Wilde’s last travels through England, France and Italy.
Everett argued the gay liberation movement started with Wilde, the 19th century Irish poet and playwright, who was eventually imprisoned for his sexuality, followed by three years of exile in Paris.
"Homosexuality wasn't even a word before Oscar Wilde, and it certainly wasn't a thing that was discussed by society as a whole," he said. "And in a 100 years… we've gone from a man who was assassinated for his sexuality, to where we stand now, and we should take heart from that, because Oscar is the beginning of that journey," Everett added.
But the veteran actor conceded there was a backlash against today's gay rights revolution after the press conference moderator pointed to members of gay communities being imprisoned and murdered in other parts of the world.
"That makes this story also very important. For us, we should take heart. For them, we should be on the attack," Everett said. The openly gay actor also insisted he was drawn to playing Oscar Wilde after his own Hollywood career suffered once Everett came out of the closet.
"I do find, being a gay performer in cinema, there's many parallels between being an outcast, or not quite accepted. It drew me to tell the (Oscar Wilde) story. I put a lot of myself in the film," Everett said. – hollywoodreporter.com
It Gets Better. Yes indeed. And with films like this winning support for distribution in the Americas and the athletes showing their love and lives are just like everyone else's, we will continue to move forward.
For more on the film, here are three of the actors discussing thier roles in The Happy Prince.