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[maxx02]

On the surface this appears to be more of the same. Read through to the end.

Sewell's weighty problem

British actor Rufus Sewell was rightly honoured at the Evening Standard theatre awards recently for his star turn in Tom Stoppard's Rock 'N' Roll.

But despite the plaudits the British actor regularly receives, he complains that he is often mistaken for Hollywood actor Joaquin Phoenix. Worse still, he explains it is because fans compare him with Phoenix during his "fat phase".

"It's not flattering - to be a less successful version of someone else. And only in Gladiator, when he deliberately got fat," he told reporters at the premiere of his latest film, The Holiday.

Never mind. Sewell told me he hopes to receive lots of books for Christmas "to make me less stupid". Quite right too. Fat and stupid is no way to go through life.

news.independent.co.uk/people/pandora/article2064743.ece

lol! someone is having fun at the expense of the press.

[Tinkerdog]

I think he is absolutely frustrated as are all of us. He is far from fat, by no means stupid - he is just in a rut and getting himself down. This man has talent, class, vivaciousness, versatility, ability and on top of it all he is just nice and I don't even know him (my loss).

He needs a "Life on Mars" type mini-series out of England (who can obviouisly identify talent) to snap him out of this. Maybe he can get cast as character in on-going TV series in this interim between movies, theater and radio.

[ukelelehip]

I would think that both comments are probably taken out of proportion. He was probably just joking and now it's been reproduced so many times that it looks like he is depressed. He just won the ES award and has been on the town, surely this isn't an exactly bad patch in his career?

[maxx02]

absolutely, Uke. I agree. I think he's having the press on a bit and the entertainment press being the humorless gits that they are don't recognize it. Personally, I thought it was rather funny. Of all the things that have been written about Rufus over the years, I think it's very clear that being stupid is not one of his issues, though being smart may be.

[ukelelehip]

And this kind of journalism is probably why he feels the need to defend himself in every interview. He always ends up denying what a previous interview said about him.

[Tinkerdog]

I much prefer your points of view! Thank you!

[GreenEyesToo]

admin said:

He always ends up denying what a previous interview said about him.

I think as well that what he says in any given interview may well be true at the time he originally says it , but days, weeks, months, years down the line he feels differently about whatever the issue is, and just gets a previous comment thrown back at him like it's still valid. And if it happens endlessly, no wonder he appears to get cranky about it.

And he's not beyond taking the p*ss out of the press, so I agree with maxx, more than likely the hacks just don't realise he's having them on!