Celebrity
His acting career could have drowned in a sea of embarrassing tabloid headlines.
One perfectly pitched apology saved it.
In a normal film, that wouldnt be a problem.
Actors go into sound booths to rerecord muddy dialogue so it can be dubbed into movies all the time.
But Charless unique way of speaking created a unique challenge for Grant.
Hugh had developed this character trait, which was a hesitation, Newell says.
I thought,This is going to take us weeks of unrelenting labor.
And it wont be any good when weve finished it, becausenobodycould reproduce what Hugh did, says Newell.
In the end, he worried for nothing.
Grant arrived at the recording booth and redelivered the entire speech flawlessly.
He did it in two takes.
What he had to do was, simply, to reproduce it.
Hugh Grant typically hides the amount of work he puts into his performances under a thick layer of irony.
I do a ridiculous amount of homework and granular analysis of every moment in the film, says Grant.
I build up these vast biographies of the character.
Hiding behind the mask of someone else seems to loosen me up and make me better.
InFour Weddings and a Funeral, he may have done his job too well.
He became Richard Curtis and Richard Curtis became him.
Richard had invented this world called Curtisland, and they went to live there.
He took Hugh with him, says Mike Newell.
What Richard wrote was whether intentional or not a short franchise.
Three movies in which Hughs character doesnt really change, says Newell.
That always made me grind my teeth a bit, says Grant.
Because that character in the Richard Curtis films was a bit repetitious.
But it wasnt me.
Its really kind of Richard.
I never had any particular interest in that genre, says Grant.
Theyre scattered all over cable channels and streamers, so they must provide some service.
Americas celluloid ghetto was positively glowing withschadenfreude, wroteThe Guardianin one typical postmortem shortly after Grant was arrested.
Let me start with question number one: What the hell were you thinking?
What it says, um.
Its not easy, um.
I keep reading new, you know, psychological theories, and stuff like that.
But I, um you know, I think that would be .
bollocks, really, to hide behind that, something like that.
And, um, I did a bad thing, and there you have it.
Grant finished and reached for his coffee mug.
Grant eventually got off with a fine and probation.Nine Monthsmade $138 million at the box office.
FromFROM HOLLYWOOD WITH LOVEby Scott Meslow.
2022 by Scott Meslow.
Reprinted by permission of Dey Street Books, an imprint of William Morrow/HarperCollins Publishers.
This article was originally published onFeb.
