Hugh Grant loves taking the piss out of the acting profession and even his own place within it, but there’s no doubt he’s left an indelible impression. From “Four Weddings and a Funeral” to “Notting Hill,” he carried the romantic comedy genre for most of the ’90s and early aughts, making women and men alike fall head over heels for his cutesy, bumbling manner. To hear him talk about it, however, these films also served as somewhat of a gilded cage that ended up defining his life off screen.
“My mistake was that I suddenly got this massive success with ‘Four Weddings’ and I thought, ah, well, if that’s what people love so much, I’ll be that person in real life, too,” Grant said in a recent interview with The New York Times. “So I used to do interviews where I was Mr. Stuttery Blinky, and it’s my fault that I was then shoved into a box marked ‘Mr. Stuttery Blinky.’ And people were, quite rightly, repelled by it in the end.”
“Repelled” may be a bit harsh (“Music and Lyrics” wasn’t that bad), but this blunt language speaks to how Grant has shifted his public persona from awkward and nervous to a man who enjoys keeping people guessing. Speaking to The New York Times as well, his “Heretic” co-star Chloe East explained how this new Grant is very tied to a specific cultural identity.
“One confusing thing about him is that you don’t know what he’s serious about,” East said. “He’s very British. You would say, ‘How is your weekend?’ and he would say, ‘It was terrible; I hate Vancouver.’ And you wonder, did he really have a dreadful weekend, or is that just his way of communicating?”
Fellow British actor Hugh Bonneville, who co-starred with Grant in “Paddington 2,” agreed that much of Grant’s attitude is put-on, as to see him work is to see a consummate professional.
“That whole ‘I don’t like acting and I wish I could be an accountant’ thing — that’s nonsense,” said Bonneville. “He may feign disinterest in the profession and downplay his own abilities, but he’s a great talent who works bloody hard on set.”
Grant has spoken about his difficulties as a performer in the past, including last month, when, in an interview with Vanity Fair, he shared how his multiple roles in “Cloud Atlas” finally reinvigorated his appreciation for acting and helped him shift his career into darker territory.
“I thought, Oh yeah, I used to really enjoy doing characters — in fact, I almost used to enjoy acting,” Grant said. “I started out doing silly voices, odd people, making people laugh at university, and then doing this comedy show in London. It was doing characters. Then through sheer chance, maybe because of the way I looked, I got drawn into the leading romantic hero. It went fine, but it’s not what I think I’m best at — partly because it’s less fun.”
A24 releases “Heretic” in theaters on November 8.
