Rupert Everett on British soldiers: 'pathetic, whining wimps'

By Stone Martindale Jun 8, 2008, 23:06 GMT

British actor Rupert Everett attends the premiere of the film St. Trinian\'s by British director Oliver Parker at the Empire Cinema in Leicester Square, London, Britain, 10 December 2007. EPA/FELIPE TRUEBA

In one fell swoop of an interview, actor Rupert Everett has branded British soldiers as "pathetic, whining wimps" and Americans as fat "blobby" and unattractive.

Oh, he has a telly-vision show he wants you to tune into, which was the point of the interviews in the first place.

The Sunday Telegraph queried the 49 year-old gay actor about his portrayal of the 19th Century soldier and adventurer Sir Richard Burton for the UK Channel 4 documentary The Victorian Sex Explorer.

In the process of chatting about his new show, he managed to swipe British soldiers risking their lives in Iraq and Afghanistan of being "whining wimps",

The Sunday Telegraph claims Everett's father is a retired major and has relatives who earned Victoria Crosses.

Despite this he compared the soldiers of today to Victorian times, and called out modern recruits as "pathetic," "wimps" and claimed: “The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed.”

"The whole point of being in the Army is wanting to get killed, wanting to test yourself to the limits. Now you have to fly 15,000ft above the war zone to avoid getting hit.

“I don't think there is any point in having wars if that's how you're going to behave. It's pathetic. All this whining! “The whole point of being in the Army is going to war and getting yourself blown up."

“That and p**sing on prisoners. Yet we all get shocked by Abu Ghraib.

"But that's war. If you don't like that side of it, don't do it. Of course soldiers are going to p**s on the first prisoners they take. It goes with the territory."