Actor Hugh Grant, who plays a power-hungry criminal in ‘Dungeons & Dragons’ slated for release next week, looks back on his rom-com career
Romantic comedies have made him famous, but actor Hugh Grant can’t quite believe it… What if true love was a “good big lie” on the big screen, does he ask? “The big question is whether the whole idea of a man and a woman who are completely inseparable – something everyone is looking for – is true, or if it’s a big fat lie”wondered the 62-year-old Briton during a meeting in Paris before the release next Wednesday of Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Thieves.
“I feel like maybe that’s a big fat lie, even though I’ve made my whole career and built my fortune on it!”joked the actor of Love at first sight in Notting Hill or of Four weddings and a funeral. “I mean, how many really happy relationships do you have? There aren’t that many”he continued. “All these romantic comedies that I’ve done, it would be interesting to shoot the sequels now, which would probably start with the divorce lawyers.”
“Too old and too ugly”
Leaving aside the irony, the actor then addressed, in an interview for AFP, the beginning of his career. “I would have liked to be more ambitious, to have longer teeth”, he regretted. “Honestly, I think I was too nonchalant. I could have tried a lot more when I was very successful and people were betting on me in Hollywood”he added. “I could have done any movie I wanted to, but really, I just wanted to watch football.”
In recent times, Hugh Grant has still been able to play darker roles. In Dungeons and Dragonshe is a power-hungry criminal: “bad guys suit me pretty well”he said. “For the past six or seven years, I’ve finally had a little fun, because I’m too old and too ugly to be the hero.”
“Actually, I started doing silly characters and voices. And all of a sudden, I was directed to leading roles. I never thought I was particularly cut out for that (…) It’s really hard to be the hero. Well paid but hard.” Anyway, “fame has changed so much since my days because of social media,” he observes.
“I’ve always dreamed of being in the shoes of those mysterious movie stars of the 1930s or 1940s, when you didn’t know who the real person behind it was, when you and your studio could lie all you wanted.”
His advice? “Try to maintain a bit of mystery. Don’t have an Instagram account!”