Date of Birth

1 December 1981, Oxfordshire, England, UK

Birth Name

Rupert William Anthony Friend

Height

6' 1" (1.85 m)

Trivia

• He trained at the Webber Douglas Academy of Dramatic Arts in London, whose alumni include Terence Stamp, Nicholas Courtney, Julia Ormond, Rupert Friend, Angela Lansbury, Matthew Goode, Hugh Bonneville, Daniel Hunt, Minnie Driver and Julian Fellowes.
• Best International Newcomer (for the Libertine) at the Ischia Global Film Festival July 2006.
• Nominated for Most Promising Newcomer at the British Independent Film Awards 2005 for Libertine.
• Won 'Outstanding New Talent' Golden Satellite at the International Press Academy Awards 2005 for Mrs Palfrey at the Claremont.
• Has played a German in two films: The Boy in the Striped Pajamas (2008) and The Young Victoria (2009).
• Was nominated for the Best Live Action Short Film at the Santa Barbara International Film Festival for his film, "Steve," that he wrote and directed.
• Began a relationship with model/actress Aimee Mullins, since 2012. The two married in 2016.

Quotes

• I can only go places because I know that I can go away from them, if that makes sense. I like the gypsy lifestyle that filming affords.
• Edinburgh is so cultural and such a beautiful place to walk around.
• Everybody has many people inside of them; I think we tend to present the one we feel is most appropriate at first, in order to gain acceptance or achieve what we want. It gets really interesting when this technique fails, and other levels are revealed.
• I like Scottish people because they feel very true. They're always level and straight. They get a reputation for being hardened because of it, but I find them to be scrupulously honest people.
• I don't really use the Internet or the newspapers to find out about people.
• I'll tell you, there's no goodies and baddies in the world, there's just people with intentions that sometimes clash.
• I really admire artists who take the time to recharge their batteries and not continually call on it. I think you can spot tired and jaded artists quite quickly.
• My great grandparents are Scottish, and I have this very tenuous connection which I try and bump up whenever I can, because I'd much rather be Scottish than English.
• I believe that if you can discover something of the truth of a person, then you will start to understand, and to understand is to move towards, if not like, then at least an empathy of some kind.
• I don't have a publicist. I don't go to events or self-promote, or endorse things, or whatever it is people are meant to do in that world.
• There are some great actors I don't want to meet because I don't want to know how they did it. I don't want to know anything about their personal life, and the illusion, or whatever it is, the shape-shiftery magic stuff that they do, which is my joy.
• I grew up in the countryside in the middle of nowhere in England and got out as soon as I could!
• I'm a terrible dancer.
• It's great to sit and talk about the films and the people I work with, rather than where I buy my socks or whatever.
• I don't think you can decide how famous or not you become.
• I think that what drives most of us as human beings is the want for something. You might have a hope, or a big dream, or a goal that you haven't yet achieved.
• I don't think the idea of working in Hollywood really exists anymore. I think you work in films, and where the film is shot is where it's shot. The studio system doesn't really exist.
• Growing up in England, you're sort of spoiled, in a way. You sort of take it for granted that within a half-hour's drive, you could be walking around a stately home from the 1700s. It's not very hard to do - in California, you've got to take a flight!
• I think that the process of trying to become somebody else, and obviously the director/actor relationship in trying to do that, is such a weird, undefinable thing.
• My father started his own business, and before that was a freelance lecturer, and my friends are artists and musicians; they don't have real jobs - none of us have real jobs.
• I'm only really interested in taking a part if it's nothing like me.
• 'On the Road' completely changed the way I looked at what you could do with your life.
• I think you can decide how much of yourself you're willing to make public.
• I really love living in cities where the people living above, below and next to you are from totally different worlds to you.
• I've never got a part in the same way twice. I've never prepared the same way. I've never experienced the filming the process the same way.
• Sport is not my thing.
• I think saying you're bad at something is rather wonderful because then it doesn't matter anymore.
• I'm not intelligent enough to be a doctor, and kind of hands down you can't argue with the worth of that. But I don't really have an opinion about the worth of making art.
• There are two qualities that I've noticed in good directors: One is that they have their vision very strongly in place; and two is that they listen to everyone's opinion and still remember their vision.
• My auditions for drama school were miserable, but one thing I had on my side, although I had no experience or skill or training, was that I wanted to learn everything.
• The accent in England can change literally from street to street, and people have this sort of feudal tribalism whereby you can identify somebody's provenance by their voice.