NEWSHugh Grant Gets Personal About Bears & Heavy Petting
Dec. 17 2009, Published 5:42 a.m. ET
What was it like for Hugh Grant working with a bear on the set of Did You Hear About The Morgans? Well, it made Hugh feel competitive! "He had actor's instincts," he tells PopEater. "He wanted to hit his mark and he wanted praise, a lot of praise." Hugh also discussed his lucky acting career, getting "squidgy" and what heavy petting he's been doing!
Hugh's been a very successful actor, especially in the romantic comedies industry, but he never thought he was very talented and only continued because he got paid!
"I've always been a charlatan in this business really," he explained. "In 1983 when I first started acting I thought I'll do it for a year and make some money and I was so bad in my first movie I thought I've got to do another to prove to my friends that I'm not that bad. That went on for a very long time. It was never planned. I always kept meaning to stop. The only time I never thought about stopping was after Four Weddings and a Funeral because I thought 'Oh, I'm going to cash in!' "
You'd think his friends would know think Hugh was alright as an actor, but he insisted that they don't.
"Well, no," he said. "My closest friends still think I'm shocking."
So why all the romantic comedies?
"I'm a very limited actor, he explains. "I can only do a certain tone really and not many people write in that tone and when they do it tends to be romantic comedies. It's not the romance side I'm all that interested in but I do get some satisfaction in entertaining people and making them laugh. Before Four Weddings I played a lot of baddies. I was always the champagne baron who stole the family's champagne and gave it to the Nazis. Played it about six times."
In his newest romantic comedy with Sarah Jessica Parker, Hugh enters the witness protection program. If Hugh ever had to do that and could only pack one suitcase there is a special friend who would have to squeeze in there.
"I can't sleep without my pillow. It's non-allergic. I've had it for a long time," he reveals. "It's got a name but we won't go there and I have to have Marmite a salty British food spread. That gets sent around the world with me. Can't get the day going without Marmite and if I'm feeling very sad I eat it straight from the pot container."
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He sounds like a little boy who can't sleep without a security blanket! While he may be young at heart, and still incredibly handsome to us, he said he disagrees and that he sees an old man when he looks in the mirror.
"I see a sad, angry, hungover middle-aged man dreading the day. There is a mirror in the hotel where I'm staying to the side of the basin and this morning I was shaving and I looked over at the mirror but my face stayed pointing down. I thought, 'That's a new one. That's bad.'"
"Don't want to get too squidgy," he added. "Someone showed me a tape of my Letterman appearance from last night and I just saw a fat, frightened man."
So what's the next romantic comedy for the "squidgy" old man?
"I have a couple of things I'm flirting with," he said. "More than flirting, heavily petting."
Did You Hear About the Morgans? opens in theaters this Friday!
