HUGH’S HAPPY ENDING
WHY HE’S NOW HAPPY TO WORK IN TELEVISION
The star speaks about family, films and Love Actually
For many of us, Christmas doesn’t quite feel like it’s really arrived until we watch some of those treasured festive movies that replay on the telly each year. One at the top of the list has to be Love Actually with its star-studded cast.
Fifteen years after it was released, we spoke to one of its stars – Hugh Grant – about the film, as well as his recent return to television and what life is now like for the family man. The 58-year-old is father to daughter Tabitha (7) and son Felix (6) with ex-girlfriend Tinglan Hong, as well as to three children with his wife Anna Eberstein − a son John (6), a three-year old daughter and a baby girl who arrived earlier this year.
You’ve been called the king of romcoms! Do you miss doing those films? Well, I don’t want to
look a gift horse in the mouth... I’m proud of them and they are very popular, and they are popular to this day. If I get home from the pub and switch on the TV, there’s always... there I am, chatting up some girl... so
I’m sort of grateful to them.
But I’m also very pleased to be through with them, I have to say.
How come?
Because I think some of the stuff I get offered to do now is fractionally more challenging and interesting.
Speaking of rom-coms, it’s the 15th anniversary of
Love Actually – do you have a favourite fond memory from the set?
Do I remember anything at all? I mean there was the horror, obviously, of having to do that dance scene, which I’ve always suspected could be the most excruciating scene ever committed to celluloid. And there are lots of people who think it is, to this day... well, some people love it. But it’s just not an easy thing for an Englishman in his 40s, to do, at seven in the morning, stone-cold sober, and someone says, “Okay, Hugh, if you’d just like to freak out now.” That’s tricky. So it was a difficult scene to do, I remember that.
Why do you think it’s still such a beloved movie?
I don’t know why it’s still so popular. I didn’t realise it was elsewhere in the world; I knew it was in England. Everyone watches it at Christmas. But I didn’t know that was the case elsewhere. That’s very nice.
Do you think the cast will get together again, like you did on Red Nose Day, or another revival by chance?
Not with that. But I think we’re going to do a Four Weddings
sort of sequel-ette for Comic Relief. That seems to be a plan. Did you make a conscious decision in recent years to lean into darker roles, like your latest TV series, A Very English Scandal?
Well, I suppose I did up to a point, but different stuff comes across my desk now, now that I’m old. Wrinkly. I really have to thank Stephen Frears, because he was the man who suddenly said, with Florence Foster-Jenkins, “I think, Hugh, you’d be perfect for this role.” I thought “Really?”
Working with
Stephen Frears... he’s sort of arthouse, and I had done all these fluffy romantic comedies.
But he believed in me and then Florence turned out pretty well and I was about to go off and do something else and he said, “No, no, no, I’ve got another project.” Then he sent me this. It’s a dream part. I mean really, it’s been very difficult, since I finished this, to sign up for anything else, because it was so up my alley. I loved the story, I loved the tone, I loved the period. It was a great character. You know... wonderful co-stars, great director. It’s very, very difficult to find something [like this]. This was sort of an A+
for me, in terms of the sort of project I want to do.
You’ve become very political, obviously, but flash back to the late ’70s when the events of A Very English Scandal actually went down. What were your reactions to the news coverage at the time?
Well, like everyone in Britain we were loving it. It was just such juicy stuff. You know, he was this prominent member of the British establishment, in his beautiful suits, and he’d been to the best schools... he was famously debonair, witty, charming and well-connected. And then all of his dirt comes pouring out − that he had a secret life, gay sex and then, you know, attempted murder... a bungled murder. It was fabulous, we all loved it. And the jokes, [there were] thousands of excellent jokes going around.
What do you hope people can take away from the series, in terms of the way society has now changed and their reaction to such scandals?
Well, it is astonishing what’s happened in our lifetime really. And I can even remember my own parents, when I was a boy, if the subject of homosexuality came up – and my parents were nice people – but you know, “We don’t really talk about that. It’s horrid.” And that was the attitude in the ’60s, early ’70s. It’s amazing how far we’ve come.
You haven’t worked in television in a long time. What was it about this show that made you want to stick your foot in and go back?
Yeah, well I was snobby. I was the last of the snobs maybe – everyone else seems to have got over that difference between film and TV. I was slightly horrified when these scripts turned up from Stephen Frears and I realised it was television. I mean, really. But it was just as I said earlier; it was just so good. The book upon which it was based was so cleverly blackly comedic.
And is there anything you’re binge-watching − any favourite shows?
Well, one of the reasons I was snobby about television is because I was behind the times. I didn’t really understand how it works anymore, because I only ever watched motor racing or tennis. And I hadn’t seen anything at all. I’m the man who hasn’t seen Sopranos – there’s something wrong with me. But anyway, one of my children has now taught me to work the television properly. And I know how to get Netflix; I’m rather proud of myself. I’ve watched The Crown and thought it was sublime. And I just watched
Big Little Lies and thought that was equally good.
Out of all your films, do you have a favourite?
Well there are some that I can look more squarely in the face than others. This one, for sure, I’m really proud of. In fact, the last three I’m very proud of [such as] Paddington 2. I think it’s... a masterpiece. [And] my film with Meryl – Florence Foster Jenkins. And before that, I think About a Boy was good.
They’re young, and you probably haven’t thought about this yet, but would you allow your children to go into your profession?
Well, it’s crossed my mind, but thankfully I’ve been to see them in their school plays and they’re all utterly talentless, so I don’t think the problem will arrive, thank God.
You said you’re done with rom-coms, but did you consider going back to Bridget Jones?
They had a version of Bridget 3 which had Daniel Cleaver in it a lot, but I could never make him work in that story. It was such a good set-up – Bridget gets pregnant with two men, she’s not sure which it is, that’s brilliant. It was always great for 10 pages. But then I just didn’t know how Daniel Cleaver would react to that. I thought he would run away from the situation. So then you’re sort of not in the film. And then they invented a version where he sort of stuck around and changed and was really into having a baby, and I thought that’s just not him. And in the end we gave up and they wrote a completely different version...which worked rather well, I thought.
Do you have any interest in writing or directing your own project?
Well, I’ve always said yes to that question. But I don’t know why I don’t get down to it. Part of my problem now is just lack of time. I have five small children and life is total chaos. Being here in LA for a week seems like a bliss... just because I don’t have someone throwing yoghurt at me.