Hugh Grant claims he's 'too old and ugly and fat' for romcoms, wishes he'd made more 'interesting' choices in his career
To most of us, Hugh Grant is the epitome of a love interest, having starred in some of the most iconic romantic comedies, including ‘Notting Hill,’ ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral,’ 'Sense and Sensibility,' and ‘Love, Actually.’ His boyish charm and wit have been pulling at our heartstrings for many decades and we are not ready to say goodbye to the romcom bait Grant. However, he definitely has no plans to reclaim the throne as the most beloved heartthrob.
During the Hollywood Reporter’s drama actor roundtable, which also featured actors Richard Madden, Billy Porter, Diego Luna, Sam Rockwell, Grant was open about not being cut out for those roles anymore. “I’ve gotten too old and ugly and fat to do them anymore, so now I’ve done other things, and I’ve got marginally less self-hatred,” he said in response to a question about developing an inferiority complex, having mostly starred in romantic comedies.
The 58-year-old also revealed that despite his commercial success, he always felt like he was trapped in a box because of the kind of roles he was cast in. Then again, the success was worth it, he said. “I was being paid tons of money,” he elaborated, further acknowledging that he was very lucky. “Most of those romantic comedies I can look squarely in the face — one or two are shockers, but on the whole, I can look them in the face, and people like them.”
Grant, who is a big believer of the theory that actors are meant to entertain, much like “the guy who does the lights and the guy who edits and the guy who pushes the dolly,” admits that he could have done a better job of “navigating fame and success.”
“I should’ve made interesting decisions and done different stuff. Instead, I repeated myself almost identically about 17 times in a row,” he recalls, adding how he took everything. “The worse it was, the quicker I took it.”
His more recent work does definitely show a different side of his talents, even having done a biopic in 2016 ‘Florence Foster Jenkins’ and the comedy-drama miniseries 'A Very English Scandal'. In 2020, he will be seen in the crime film ‘The Gentlemen,’ also starring Matthew McConaughey, Charlie Hunnam, and Michelle Dockery.
