by Paul Fischer
Hugh Grant: Where Am I? Who Am I?
It
is 9 a.m. on a Saturday morning and Hugh Grant is just off the
redeye from LA, jet lagged out of his mind. Without even a small dose
of caffeine, the British born actor is hustled into a room where a dozen
microphones aim at him like "little tiny guns," he says. Even
half asleep he valiantly tries to recall the specifics of his role in
Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks
(he's an art dealer and love interest to co-star Tracey Ullman)
and is charming and witty -- exactly the same as the Hugh Grant you see
in the movies.
CrankyCritic:
Is your character in this movie opportunistic or a gut bucket sleaze with
a veneer of respectability on top?
Hugh Grant: God, yes, I can't remember the answer to that question
[laughter]. what was my inner story? Yes, I think he's quite sleazy anyway,
from the word go. Disturbed, I think is what I had. A problem childhood.
Damaged
CrankyCritic:
It's more fun to play a disturbed character rather than the normal guy,
right?
Hugh Grant: Yeah yeah yeah. You know everyone loves to be the villain.
The only problem with a part like that is that you have to, for the sake
of the piece, appear lovely for 90 percent of it. You, as the actor, know
that inside you is evil. Or do people pick that up?
CrankyCritic:
You've got a scene that spills it
Hugh Grant: Well, there's that too.
CrankyCritic:
When Woody Allen phoned you did he tell you what the part was?
Hugh Grant: It wasn't a phone call, that would be too intimate.
[laughter] It was a fax that said "I'm doing a movie about such and such
and there's a part of someone who appears to be incredibly charming, well
bred, nice Englishman who turns out to be a shallow bastard and I thought
you would be perfect." That's all he wrote.
CrankyCritic:
even the character's costume reflects that he might not appear to be what
he pretends to be...
Hugh Grant: thank you yes I thought that was a triumphant moment
of costume design.
CrankyCritic: Kind of gay.
Hugh Grant: Well, I am very queenie about costumes. [laughter]
I remember thrashing around with the costume designer for ages and then
putting it on, as a joke, and suddenly there it was. I can base whole
characterizations around one garment. That and some Japanese slippers,
if you took that in
CrankyCritic: no, we missed that one.
Hugh Grant: Well, then, go back and watch it again!
CrankyCritic: other actors have always talked about Woody's allowance for improvisation. How much of that did he allow for you?
Hugh Grant: With Woody he always said "For God's sake don't say the lines as written if you don't want to. Say whatever you'd like. Interrupt each other." He's furious if you don't. He doesn't like it if it's 'he said - she said' so you've got to mess it up. The peril is to avoid "doing Woody" because you can drop into that very fast.
CrankyCritic:
This was also your first experience working with Tracey Ullman
Hugh Grant: I've never met her but I've always been a huge fan.
It was very cozy actually.
CrankyCritic:
Gee, we thought all you Brit actors knew each other.
Hugh Grant: Quite. I know. I think it's because I'm so unfriendly.
I don't have any actor friends.
CrankyCritic:
Why?
Hugh Grant: I don't know. I stick to models. No, I really don't
know. I'm friends when I'm doing the job and then I drop them like hot
cake.
CrankyCritic:
So who are your friends?
Hugh Grant: I don't think I have any, do I? [laughter] I have the
same tireed old bunch I've had for many years. There was one actor, but
he hated it as much as me. I don't know what they do. Film editors. Bankers.
Criminals, actually, in a couple of cases.
CrankyCritic:
Let's go back to that hating acting thing. You once were a teacher...
Hugh Grant: I taught for two weeks! [laughter] One poor sad girl
who was between schools and her mother thought she could use some extra
help. But I nearly finished her off. It was a disaster. I made her cry
because she would never answer my questions and in the end I was furious
with her. It was only afterwards I discovered she was deaf in one ear.
Yeah, I'd be teaching her at a table, very much like this, and she was
on the wrong side so she couldn't hear a word I said. Oh my god it was
horrible.
CrankyCritic:
so that was the end of teaching
Hugh Grant: Pretty much. Plus, teaching brings home to you very
fast that you actually know nothing. I didn't realize that before
CrankyCritic:
How did the acting come about (it's too early for me to look it up in
the biography...)
Hugh Grant: Well that was a little bit of a mistake as well. I
did some student film ( called "Privileged" ) when I was at Oxford that
became, surprisingly, successful even though it was deep, pretentious
rubbish
CrankyCritic:
Like most student films
Hugh Grant: Well actually he's gone on to become a great director,
Mike Hoffman, but I think he would admit that it was embarrassing. Nevertheless
it opened a door to acting and I didn't know what else to do with my life
so I thought I'd that for a year and then it's a laugh that's gone on
for 18 years.
CrankyCritic:
you really don't like it
Hugh Grant: I'm afraid I do. I slightly dread it, yes. I'm dreading
next week already. (when he starts filming Bridget Jones' Diary).
I was thinking on the plane yesterday how pathetic it is to be dreading
the read-through after 25 films and 18 years of acting. I mean real terror.
I think maybe in a way it gets worse because you come in with a real reputation
and they've paid you lots of money and all that. They're all thinking
"be good" and it's just terrifying.
CrankyCritic:
What do you dread?
Hugh Grant: The first time I open my mouth in the read through.
You sit there, palms sweating and turning the pages, thinking and whatever
I say on the first few pages comes out in this horrible kind of barked
monotone. I never really got over the Four Weddings read through.
I'd been plucked from obscurity to do the film and that was the most terrifying
read-through of my life. All this cast of wonderful English lovelies sitting
around and all the producers and we started. I was siting next to a girl
from Working Title, the production company, and she had a pad and as we
were reading I could see her writing down notes "Hugh Grant. More Ironic
???" I've never let her forget it
CrankyCritic:
So how long does it take you to lock in to a character?
Hugh Grant: Usually what happens is that someone is so startlingly
bad that you think "Oh I'm not as bad as that" and that relaxes you [laughter].
Very often that person turns out to be the best thing in the film. Fortunately,
there's no correlation between being good at read-throughs and being good
in front of a camera.
CrankyCritic:
But you are good in front of a camera
Hugh Grant: Strangely enough I'm better on a stage. I love that
I feel like I blossom in front of a whole bunch of people. But a few technicians
and a camera I find unbelievably frightening.
CrankyCritic: the first movie you were paid money for...
Hugh Grant: was Mutiny on the Bounty with Mel Gibson but I was fired for
not having a union card on the day before we left for Tahiti
CrankyCritic:
What would you do if you weren't acting?
Hugh Grant: Ah, well, there is the question. I do try and write
stuff but very slowly.