Hugh John Mungo Grant (born 9 September 1960 in London) is an English actor.
He is best known for his long association with writer Richard Curtis in a string of wildly successful British Rom Coms, including Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, and Love Actually. His standard role in these films was as a bumbling but well-meaning quintessentially British Upper-Class Twit, who had to overcome his British Stuffiness and repression to win the heart of a (usually American) female love interest. In the late 1990s, he began taking roles that had him actively Playing Against Type, often as a jaded English cad, such as Daniel Cleaver (an Expy of Pride and Prejudice's George Wickham) in Bridget Jones' Diary, and About a Boy, while occasionally blending the two types together (such as in Music and Lyrics). In another big instance of Playing Against Type, he played (among other characters) a slave-trading reverend, a Jerkass and vindictive husband who sends his brother in a retirement home against his will. He also did Did You Hear About the Morgans?.
He went into semi-retirement for a number of years as he turned his attention to the campaign for tighter restrictions on the British media (including giving evidence for the Leveson Inquiry
). This, however, hasn't prevented him from appearing in a few recent films, such as Cloud Atlas, the film remake of The Man from U.N.C.L.E. (2015), as well as in the 2014 rom-com The Rewrite.
There's also his turn as the well-meaning St Clair Bayfield in Florence Foster Jenkins (a combo performance with Meryl Streep, which they've clearly mutually enjoyed). It was this experience that got him back into acting full timenote , leading to his memorable performance as Large Ham Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2 and portrayal of Jeremy Thorpe in A Very English Scandal.
Hugh Grant on TV Tropes:
- The Last Place on Earth (1985)
- A Very Peculiar Practice (1986) (1 episode)
- Maurice (1987)
- White Mischief (1987)
- The Lair of the White Worm (1988)
- Impromptu (1991)
- Bitter Moon (1992)
- The Remains of the Day (1993)
- Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994)
- Sirens (1994)
- The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain (1995)
- Nine Months (1995)
- Sense and Sensibility (1995)
- Extreme Measures (1996)
- Doctor Who: The Curse of Fatal Death (1999)
- Mickey Blue Eyes (1999)
- Notting Hill (1999)
- Robbie the Reindeer (1999)
- Small Time Crooks (2000)
- Bridget Jones's Diary (2001)
- About a Boy (2002)
- Two Weeks Notice (2002)
- Love Actually (2003)
- Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason (2004)
- Housewarming (2005)
- American Dreamz (2006)
- Music and Lyrics (2007)
- Did You Hear About the Morgans? (2009)
- The Pirates! In an Adventure with Scientists (2012)
- Cloud Atlas (2012)
- The Rewrite (2014)
- The Man From UNCLE (2015)
- Florence Foster Jenkins (2016)
- Paddington 2 (2017)
- A Very English Scandal (2018)
- The Gentlemen (2019)
- The Undoing (2020)
- Glass Onion (2022)
- Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre (2023)
- Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)
- Wonka (2023)
- The Regime (2024)
- Unfrosted (2024)
Tropes associated with his work:
- Awesome, Dear Boy: He considered himself retired from films in The New '10s, but he did Florence Foster Jenkins just to work with Meryl Streep.
- Career Resurrection: Both Florence Foster Jenkins and Paddington 2 helped bring him back into the limelight after a career downturn in the 2010s.
- Casting Gag: He plays Emma Thompson's love interest in Sense and Sensibility, and her brother in Love Actually.
- Creator Backlash:
- He hated the infamous dance scene in Love Actually, calling it "absolute hell".
- On the subject of Wonka and playing as the Oompa Loompas, he admitted before the film's worldwide release how much he despised his time on set, in large part because of having to act for motion-capture, which was physically uncomfortable and confusing as he received little to no direction on how much to "act with [his] body" (which was ultimately replaced with animation in post).
- Deadpan Snarker: No matter the role, you can always expect him to get plenty of one-liners and sarcastic remarks.
- Fake American: In the Made-for-TV Movie Our Sons and Cloud Atlas.
- Hostility on the Set:
- Mildly between him and Julia Roberts while making Notting Hill (he famously complained about having to kiss her because of her "large mouth"). She has since forgiven him and said she'd be willing to work with him again.
- He and Robert Downey Jr. famously did not get along while filming Restoration, with Grant saying RDJ took an instant dislike to him and responding in kind. The two had a very tense relationship for years until making up on Twitter in 2018.
- I Am Very British: He's known for his fairly refined, upper class accent.
- Large Ham: When he wants to, he can really bring in the ham as Paddington 2 gloriously illustrated.
- Playing Against Type:
- Bridget Jones as the Handsome Lech Daniel Cleaver. He's joked that it's the role closest to his own personality.
- About a Boy he plays a disaffected and unsympathetic loner who pretends to be a single father to pick up girls.
- Cloud Atlas is quite different too from his romcom fare, playing multiple roles across the years in a sci-fi epic, including a cannibalistic tribe chief.
- So Beautiful, It's a Curse: Mike Newell admitted to thinking Hugh was completely wrong for Four Weddings and a Funeral because he was "too handsome" (the haircut he was given was an attempt to make him look less attractive). The Jane Austen Society likewise complained that he was too good looking to play Edward Ferrars in Sense and Sensibility.
- Star-Making Role: Four Weddings and a Funeral, Bitter Moon and Sirens all came out around the same time, and turned him into a star internationally.
- Throw It In!: About a Boy has a shot where Will is reflected in the mirror looking depressed. This was between takes where Hugh happened to be looking a little tired - so they got the shot without him knowing.
- Typecasting: In romantic comedies as the bumbling British gentleman who usually finds love with an American girl.
- Unbuilt Casting Type: Before his typecasting as that charmingly desirable English gentleman wooing an American love interest, he starred in Sirens. There he plays a well-meaning but poor husband whose marriage lacks passion because of his idolization of his repressed wife. He in fact has to learn how to put passion back into their marriage.
- What Could Have Been: He was the first choice for the role of the Ninth Doctor in Doctor Who before Christopher Eccleston was cast. However, he turned it down due to his belief that the revival would not take off. He later expressed his regret at turning down the offer having seen how successful the series turned out. He previously portrayed a non-canonical version of the Doctor in "The Curse of Fatal Death".
