Living with a Brexiteer mother causes ‘friction’, admits actor Rupert Everett

The Golden Globe-nominated actor recently moved in with his 85-year-old mother in the UK, living with his partner and dog Pluto.

While he said his mother was “set in her ways”, the set up was still “great”.

Speaking on Desert Island Discs, the Hollywood star said of his current life: “I work a lot actually these days. I live a very quiet life. I am not very social.

“I am a kind of country blob most of the time, and I come up to town and almost get run over every time I cross the road.

“I live in her house or she lives in my house, whichever one of us you are listening to.

“She is 85 and set in her ways – a Brexiteer – and I am 60 and set in my ways, and a Remainer.

“And there is obviously a certain amount of friction but also it is great.”

Appearing on the long-running BBC Radio 4 programme, Everett chose songs including Shut Up by Stormzy and Ghost Town by The Specials to chart his conversation with host Lauren Laverne.

Everett, best known for starring roles in Dance With A Stranger and My Best Friend’s Wedding, said being sent to boarding school had resulted in his famously “frosty” personality.

He was educated at the £36,486-a-year Ampleforth College in North Yorkshire, where pupils are taught by monks.

He said: “It’s a heart-breaking experience that you never quite recover from. I think these schools were made for empire because they calcified the hearts of the empire rulers.

“They would never be as hurt again as they were hurt by the abandonment of their parents.”

He added: “I think it cauterises some emotional thing.”

Asked whether he saw that in his own life, he replied: “Just being a generally frosty person. If I am a frosty person, which I probably am in a way, it comes from that.”

Rupert Everett on Desert Island Discs airs on BBC Sounds and BBC Radio 4 on Sunday at 11.15am.