Rupert Everett ‘doing pretty well’ pulling pints to help save local pub

Rupert Everett has said he is “doing pretty well” at pulling pints as he revealed he is doing shifts behind the bar of his local pub to help save it from closure.

The veteran star, 66, has been helping out The Swan in Enford, Wiltshire, as part of a community initiative to keep the doors of the pub open.

He told ITV’s Good Morning Britain: “I’m part of a big rota. Our pub closed down a few months ago, and it’s had a chequered existence for the last 20 years, like many pubs, and it’s in a rural village, and I think the people in the village realised that without it there’s no possibility of communication, and so the villagers wanted to keep the pub going.

“Everybody decided to take part in rotas in various roles and I have done a few stints pulling pints.

“I was working on Saturday, but I’m off to work now, so I’m not going to be back for a bit.

“But it’s a great thing. Without a pub in a village, if you’re in the countryside and you’re eight miles from the nearest town, it’s sad, and it’s such a difficult time for pubs in general.

“I should say where it is. Anyone on the A345 going past Enford, go to The Swan for a drink.”

Asked if he has good arm action for pulling pints, Everett said: “I’m doing pretty well so far.”

He added he would be back behind the bar “probably at the end of the month”.

Everett is best known for playing quintessential Englishmen in his roles in Another Country, My Best Friend’s Wedding and An Ideal Husband.

He hopes to return to his role of George Downes in the upcoming sequel to My Best Friend’s Wedding, the 1997 romantic comedy starring Julia Roberts.

Asked if the sequel will be along the lines of “My Best Friend’s Divorce”, he said: “That I can’t say, it hasn’t been written yet. It’s only been commissioned in the writing stage.”

Asked if it will be him alongside Roberts again, he said: “Let’s hope. It might not be, you never know. You have to be ready for all options.”

Everett will soon be seen joining the cast of the second series of Rivals, the Disney+ adaptation of the Jilly Cooper novel, and he said: “I’m thrilled to be in it. I watched the first series and I thought, ‘God, this is a breath of fresh air somehow’, because it’s not hindered by any sense of political correctness really.

“It’s also a really, really good look at the 1980s. It’s a difficult period to do, actually, because it’s almost like how we are now, but it’s also very different.”