Rupert Everett has never been known to hold back, and he is as forthright as ever when tackling sex workers. The actor tells Susan Griffin why he has such strong views about prostitution, the subject of his latest documentary which also features his meeting with Hull dominatrix Mistress Dita.
If you are going to do a documentary on sex, it is probably best if you are not squeamish or judgmental.
Rupert Everett is neither. The actor, who began his career in 1981 and came to worldwide prominence alongside Julia Roberts in 1997's My Best Friend's Wedding, has been notoriously candid about his own sexual experiences.
Even the fact that he worked briefly as a rent boy after running away to London as a teenager.
In recent years, he has ventured into documentaries – one on the famous philanderer and poet Lord Byron and another on the Victorian adventurer Sir Richard Burton, whose travel books were considered pornographic at the time.
He has now teamed up with director and producer Michael Waldman to further explore the subject in two-part series Love For Sale.
It examines why prostitutes are often seen as either immoral people or exploited victims, with Everett seeking to get behind the stereotypes.
"Oscar Wilde said England was 'the native land of the hypocrite', and we're such hypocrites. I think we'd be more fun if we accepted how kinky we were," says a suited Everett in his typically forthright, florid manner.
"Other countries in Europe don't seem to have so much of a problem with it [sex]. I don't know what makes us so uptight, and at the same time, so extreme." the 54-year-old adds.
In the first part of the documentary, Why People Sell Sex (which airs on Monday and is available on 4OD), he explores the motivations of sex workers, from the middle-class woman in Devon who loves her work, to the Liverpool street-walker wanting out and Mayfair escort who charges £700 an hour.
Everett proves an honest and entertaining host on the thought-provoking journey.
One minute he's spouting Wilde and Shakespeare, the next he's singing an impromptu Elton John duet with a transsexual prostitute.
"It's a subject that could be done in a po-faced way," says his collaborator, Waldman. "I think you'll see Rupert is the opposite of that. He takes it seriously and is empathetic with the people.
"And when Rupert is involved and feels intrigued and interested by a world, he gets magnificent responses from people."
But the documentary never shies away from the negative impacts of the sex trade, either.
The actor talks to a rent boy on the backstreets of Tel Aviv and another male sex worker who has just returned from a lucrative trip to LA, who describes living the high life and travelling the world – then in the next breath reveals eight friends (fellow prostitutes) have killed themselves in the past 18 months.
The sex trade is dangerous, something Everett knows only too well, as one his friends, a prostitute called Lychee, was murdered on New Year's Eve two decades ago.
"That was one of the other reasons I've always been interested in trying to do something on the subject, because she was a great friend of mine," he says.
In the programme, he travels back to the wooded Bois de Boulogne area in Paris, where the crime happened. "It's still the sex centre of Paris, and we met some girls who worked with Lychee. I think it's the most extraordinary section of the whole documentary," he says.
He also explores the motivations of the men who use prostitutes, meeting self-confessed sex addicts, as well as a married man who enjoys sexual role-play with Hull dominatrix Mistress Dita, and a divorced transgender father.
Russell Brand, who has made no secret of the fact he has been with prostitutes in the past, also makes an appearance in the second documentary, Why People Buy Sex.
"Russell's the king of the about-turn and doing the unexpected. He's one of those people who can move from heroin to All-Bran in the bat of an eye," says Everett.
"He said, 'In a utopia, these issues wouldn't exist and we wouldn't be using people for sex' – and he's right."
Everett isn't unshockable and admits he was surprised by one "extraordinary man, who looked like a professor" who lives with his wife in the North.
"He did reviews of every single dominatrix in England," recalls Everett, whose family home is in Enford, Wiltshire.
"I said, 'Is there one in Enford?' And he said, 'Ooh, I'm not sure about that. Does Durrington mean anything to you?' It's around the corner! And the weird thing is, there's a dominatrix in every village in England.
"You think the whole thing is going to be this weird, shadowy world, but sex is everywhere. I think it's time we smartened up to it and shuffled off this post-Reformation view of it."
Born to a major in the British Army and brought up a Roman Catholic, Everett also travels to Gethsemane in Jerusalem to reflect on how his upbringing has shaped his own thoughts on sex.
"Of course, as a child brought up in a very heavily Catholic environment, the first mention of Mary Magdalene had the whole lot of us going crazy with excitement and desire," he says.
"I think the weird thing about Christianity, our 'Christian' country," he guffaws, "is that it feeds sex to you in the most alarming way. Sex is always made into this incredible issue. It's actually quite a simple thing."
He is equally damning about politicians.
"We're living in a very weird world at the moment. They're presenting us with a kind puritanical wave because they've been seen to be completely corrupt," he says.
"They've rebranded the prostitute from her traditional position of being a 'she-devil', to now being a victim. And this victim still gets prosecuted in the same way."
Westminster is currently looking into criminalising sex clients but, Everett says, "whatever we think about prostitution, it's not going to be stopped in its tracks".
"The criminalisation of the punter will just drive it further underground," he says
What should really happen is "the decriminalisation of the whole thing".
"So that women who do this job can be protected and made safe," Everett says. "And that's my whole reason for doing the documentaries."Love For Sale: Why People Buy SexChannel 4 on Monday, May 5.
