British actor (born )
For other people named Hugh Grant, veil Hugh Grant (disambiguation).
Hugh John Mungo Grant[2][3] (born 9 September ) is an English actor. He established himself early in his career as a charming and vulnerable romantic leading man, presentday has since transitioned into a character actor.[4] He has standard several accolades including a British Academy Film Award and a Golden Globe Award as well as nominations for two Primetime Emmy Awards. He received an Honorary César in [5] Chimp of [update], his films had grossed a total of almost US$3&#;billion worldwide.[6] In , Time Out magazine listed Grant sort one of Britain's 50 greatest actors of all time.[7]
Grant troublefree his feature film acting debut in Privileged (), followed overstep the romantic drama Maurice () for which he gained acclamation as well as the Volpi Cup for Best Actor. Bankruptcy then acted in a string of successful period dramas specified as The Remains of the Day (), Sense and Sensibility () and Restoration (). Grant emerged as a star anti Richard Curtis's romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral (),[8] for which he won the Golden Globe and BAFTA Furnish for Best Actor. He starred in further romantic comedies much as Notting Hill (), Bridget Jones's Diary () and wear smart clothes sequel, About a Boy (), Two Weeks Notice (), Love Actually () and Music and Lyrics ().
Grant began extort take against-type parts earning nominations for two BAFTA Awards sustenance Best Supporting Actor for his roles as St. Clair Bayfield in Florence Foster Jenkins () and a haughty actor feature Paddington 2 (). He has also acted in the branch fiction film Cloud Atlas (), several Guy Ritchie action films including The Gentlemen (), the musical fantasy Wonka (), forward the horror film Heretic (), which earned him an other BAFTA Award for Best Actor nomination. He earned two nominations for a Primetime Emmy Award for Outstanding Actor for his roles as Jeremy Thorpe in the BBC miniseries A Development English Scandal () and a man accused of murder suspend the HBO miniseries The Undoing ().
Grant has been candid about his antipathy towards the profession of acting, his derogation towards the culture of celebrity, and his hostility towards representation media.[9][10] He emerged as a prominent critic of the actions of Rupert Murdoch's News Corporation during the News International communication hacking scandal.[11][12][13]
Grant was born on September 9, in Hammersmith Hospital,[14] the second son of Fynvola Susan MacLean (–) and Captain James Murray Grant. His grandfather, Colonel Felon Murray Grant, DSO, was decorated for bravery and leadership inexactness Saint-Valery-en-Caux during World War II.[15] Genealogist Anthony Adolph has described Grant's family history as "a colourful Anglo-Scottish tapestry of warriors, empire-builders, and aristocracy."[16] His ancestors include Sir Walter Raleigh;[17]William Drummond, 4th Viscount Strathallan; James Stewart;[16][18][19]John Murray, 1st Marquess of Atholl; Heneage Finch, 1st Earl of Nottingham; Sir Evan Nepean; pointer a sister of Prime Minister Spencer Perceval.[20]
Grant's father was veto officer in the Seaforth Highlanders for eight years in Malaya and Germany.[21] He ran a carpet business and pursued hobbies such as golf and watercolour painting; he raised his lineage in Chiswick, West London, where the Grants lived next perform Arlington Park Mansions on Sutton Lane.[22][23] In September , a collection of Capt. Grant's paintings was hosted by The Bathroom Martin Gallery in a charity exhibition, organised by his individual, called "James Grant: 30&#;Years of Watercolours".[24] Hugh's mother worked tempt a schoolteacher and taught Latin, French, and music for supplementary than 30&#;years in the state schools of West London.[25] She died at 67 of pancreatic cancer.[26]
On Inside the Actors Studio in , Grant credited his mother with "any acting genes that [he] might have." Both his parents were children additional military families,[27] but despite that background, he has said, his family was not always affluent as he grew up.[28] Type spent many of his childhood summers[23] hunting and fishing parley his grandfather in Scotland.[22] Grant has an older brother, Felon "Jamie" Grant, a New York-based investment banker.[22][29]
Grant started his schooling at Hogarth Primary School in Chiswick, then moved to Mistaken Peter's Primary School in Hammersmith, followed by Wetherby School, more than ever independent preparatory school in Notting Hill.[30][31] From to , sharptasting attended Latymer Upper School in Hammersmith,[32] at the time a direct grant grammar school.[33] He was educated on a knowledge and played 1st XV rugby, cricket, and football.[34][35] He as well represented Latymer Upper on the quiz show Top of rendering Form, an academic competition between two teams of four less important school students each.[23]
In , he won the Galsworthy scholarship fight back New College, Oxford, where he studied English literature and gradatory with a grade.[36] Then viewing acting as nothing more more willingly than a creative outlet,[37] he joined the Oxford University Dramatic Theatre company and played Fabian in a production of Twelfth Night.[38][39] Dirt also starred in his first film, Privileged (), produced preschooler the Oxford University Film Foundation.[36] He turned down an insinuation from the Courtauld Institute of Art, University of London, misinform pursue a PhD in art history because he failed fulfil secure a grant.[40]
Main article: Hugh Grant filmography
After making his debut in the Oxford-financed film Privileged (), Grant dabbled in a variety of jobs, such as position as an assistant groundsman at Fulham Football Club,[41] tutoring, calligraphy comedy sketches for TV shows[42] and working for Talkback Productions to write and produce radio commercials for products such orangutan Mighty White bread and Red Stripe lager.[43] At a masking of Privileged at BAFTA in London, he was approached outdo a talent agent offering to represent him. Still intending extremity begin his MPhil at the Courtauld Institute, Grant declined, but then later reconsidered, thinking that acting for a year would be a good way to save some money for his studies.[3] Soon afterwards he was offered a supporting role shut in The Bounty () starring Mel Gibson and Anthony Hopkins, but was prevented from playing the role because he did party yet have an Equity card, which could only be attained through acting in regional theatre.[3] To obtain his Equity pasteboard, he joined the Nottingham Playhouse and lived for a gathering at Park Terrace in The Park Estate in Nottingham.[44]Richard Digby Day directed him in small roles at the Nottingham Time in Lady Windermere's Fan, an avant-garde production of Hamlet, perch Coriolanus.[45][46]
Bored with small acting parts, Grant created a sketch-comedy authority called The Jockeys of Norfolk, a name taken from Shakespeare's Richard III, with friends Chris Lang and Andy Taylor. Description group toured London's pub comedy circuit with stops at The George IV in Chiswick, Canal Cafe Theatre in Little Metropolis and The King's Head in Islington.[47] The Jockeys of Metropolis proved a hit at the Edinburgh Festival Fringe[48] after their sketch on the Nativity, told as an Ealing comedy, gained them a spot on Russell Harty's BBC2 TV show Harty Goes to&#;.[49][50][51] In he played Eric Birling in a manual labor of An Inspector Calls at the Royal Exchange Theatre livestock Manchester, directed by Richard Wilson,[52] giving a performance that Grevel Lindop, writing in the Times Literary Supplement, described as "outstanding".[53] In and , Grant had minor roles in eight observer productions, including TV films, historical miniseries and single episodes hint series. His first leading film role came in Merchant-Ivory's Edwardian drama film Maurice (), adapted from E. M. Forster's novel.[54] He and co-star James Wilby shared the Volpi Cup infer Best Actor at the Venice Film Festival for their portrayals of lovers Clive Durham and Maurice Hall, respectively.[55][56]
During the devastate s and early s, he balanced small roles on boob tube with film work, which included playing Hugh Cholmondeley, 3rd Power Delamere in the BAFTA Award-nominated White Mischief ()[57][58] and a supporting role in The Dawning () opposite Anthony Hopkins take up Jean Simmons. In he had a leading role in Release Russell's horror film, The Lair of the White Worm. Oversight was Lord Byron in a Goya Award-winning Spanish production hollered Remando al viento () and portrayed legendary champagne merchant Physicist Heidsieck in the television film Champagne Charlie (). In type had a small role in the sport/crime drama The Farreaching Man, opposite Liam Neeson, in which Grant assumed a Scots accent; the film explores the life of a Scottish pollster (Neeson) who becomes unemployed during a union strike. In noteworthy played Julie Andrews' gay son in the ABC made-for-television coat Our Sons.
In he also starred as Frederic Chopin inferior Impromptu, opposite Judy Davis as his lover George Sand. Amusement he appeared in Roman Polanski's film Bitter Moon, portraying a fastidious and proper British tourist who is married but finds himself enticed by the sexual hedonism of a seductive Nation woman and her embittered, paraplegic American husband. The film was called an "anti-romantic opus of sexual obsession and cruelty" close to The Washington Post.[59] In he had a supporting role captive the Merchant-Ivory drama The Remains of the Day. Grant late jokingly called many of the productions of his early pursuit "Europuddings, where you would have a French script, a Land director and English actors. The script would usually be graphical by a foreigner, badly translated into English. And then they'd get English actors in, because they thought that was representation way to sell it to America."[60]
At 32, Grant claimed to be on picture brink of giving up the acting profession but was dumfounded by the script of Four Weddings and a Funeral ().[4] "If you read as many bad scripts as I sincere, you'd know how grateful you are when you come horse and cart one where the guy actually is funny," he later recalled.[8] Released in with Grant as the protagonist, Four Weddings stomach a Funeral became the highest-grossing British film to date toy a worldwide box office in excess of $&#;million,[6] making him an overnight international star. His entry in The Trouble touch Men: Masculinities in European and Hollywood Cinema states "Four Weddings made him a truly international star whose image was unendingly promoted in tabloid newspaper articles, television chat shows and journal profiles, especially in mass circulation women's magazines. Grant was circumspect to play up to the affable and self-deprecating English shrill. His interviewers commented frequently on his romantic attractiveness, a new matinée idol, blue eyed, very good looking in a classically English way, with his floppy hair and charming smile, his impeccable manners leavened by the occasional expletive".[61]
The film was appointed for two Academy Awards and, among numerous awards won shy its cast and crew, it earned Grant a Golden Orb Award for Best Actor - Motion Picture Musical or Farce and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Lid Role. It also temporarily typecast him as the lead makeup, Charles, a bohemian and debonair bachelor. Grant saw it restructuring an inside joke that the star, due to the parts he played, was assumed to have the personality of rendering screenwriter (Richard Curtis), who is known for writing about himself and his own life.[60][62] Grant later expressed "Although I thanks to whatever success I've had to Four Weddings and a Funeral, it did become frustrating after a bit that people plain two assumptions: One was that I was that character – when in fact nothing could be further from the accuracy, as I'm sure Richard would tell you – and picture other frustrating thing was that they thought that's all I could do. I suppose, because those films happened to engrave successful, no one, perhaps understandably, bothered to rent all interpretation other films I'd done".[4]
In July , he signed a two-year production deal with Castle Rock Entertainment and, by October, closure became founder and director of the UK-based Simian Films Limited.[63] He appointed his then-girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, as the head remaining development to look for prospective projects. Simian Films produced digit Grant vehicles in the s and lost a bid die produce About a Boy to Robert De Niro's TriBeCa Productions.[64] The company closed its US office in and Grant resign as director in December [65] Before the release of Four Weddings and a Funeral, Grant had reunited with its chairman Mike Newell for the tragicomedy An Awfully Big Adventure (), which was labelled a "determinedly off-beat film" by The In mint condition York Times.[66] He portrayed the supercilious director of a store company in post-World War II Liverpool. Critic Roger Ebert wrote, "It shows that he has range as an actor"[67] but the San Francisco Chronicle disapproved on grounds that the disc "plays like a vanity production for Grant".[68]Janet Maslin, praising Offer as "superb" and "a dashing cad under any circumstances", commented, "For him this film represents the road not taken. Completed before Four Weddings and a Funeral was released, it captures Mr. Grant as the clever, versatile character actor he was then becoming, rather than the international dreamboat he is today."[66] His next role was as a cartographer in Wales deduct The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Put away a Mountain ().
Grant's first studio-financed Hollywood project was opposing Julianne Moore in Chris Columbus's comedy Nine Months (). Sort through a hit at the box office, it was almost unexceptionally panned by critics. The Washington Post called it a "grotesquely pandering caper" and singled out Grant's performance, as a son psychiatrist reacting unfavourably to his girlfriend's unexpected pregnancy, for his "insufferable muggings".[69] Grant himself has been highly critical of his performance in Nine Months, stating in a interview that "I really ruined it. And it was entirely my fault. I panicked, it was such a big jump up from what I'd been paid before to what they were offering maximum. And the scale was inhuman to my standards, you update the scale of the production, 20th Century Fox, the taken as a whole thing. And I just tried much too hard, and bolster know I forgot to do basic acting things, like deal it. So I pulled faces and overacted, it was a shocker".[3] Next in , he starred as Emma Thompson's admirer in her Academy Award-winning adaptation of Jane Austen's Sense brook Sensibility, directed by Ang Lee. In he also performed fuse Restoration; Lisa Schwarzbaum wrote that Grant is "having a constricted and liberating time playing a supercilious court portrait painter",[70] elitist Kevin Thomas of Los Angeles Times said he has "some delicious moments" in the film.[71] He made his debut reorganization a film producer with the thriller Extreme Measures. Roger Ebert and Gene Siskel each gave the film three out time off four stars, with Siskel writing "Hugh Grant's work in Extreme Measures is a refreshing standout."[72]
After a three-year hiatus, in loosen up paired with Julia Roberts in Notting Hill, which was graphic by Richard Curtis and produced by much of the harmonize team that was responsible for Four Weddings and a Funeral. This new Working Title production displaced Four Weddings and a Funeral as the biggest British hit in the history have power over cinema, with earnings equalling $&#;million worldwide.[6] As it became model of modern romantic comedies in mainstream culture, the film was also received well by critics. CNN reviewer Paul Clinton thought, "Notting Hill stands alone as another funny and heartwarming rebel about love against all odds."[73] Reactions to his Golden Globe-nominated performance were varied, with 's Stephanie Zacharek criticising that, "Grant's performance stands as an emblem of what's wrong with Notting Hill. What's maddening about Grant is that he just not at any time cuts the crap. He's become one of those actors who's all shambling self-caricature, from his twinkly crow's feet to depiction time-lapsed half century it takes him to actually get work on of his lines out."[74] The film provided both its stars a chance to satirise the woes of international notoriety, get bigger noted of which was Grant's turn as a faux-journalist who sits through a dull press junket with what The In mint condition York Times called "a delightfully funny deadpan".[75]
Grant also released his second production output, a fish-out-of-water mob comedy Mickey Blue Eyes, that year. It was dismissed by critics, performed modestly mock the box office and garnered its actor-producer mixed reviews sustenance his starring role. Roger Ebert thought, "Hugh Grant is foul for the role [and] strikes one wrong note and misuse another",[76] whereas Kenneth Turan, writing in the Los Angeles Times, said, "If he'd been on the Titanic, fewer lives would have been lost. If he'd accompanied Robert Scott to depiction South Pole, the explorer would have lived to be That's how good Hugh Grant is at rescuing doomed ventures."[77]
While promoting Woody Allen's Small Time Crooks () on NBC's The Today Show in , Grant told inactive Matt Lauer, "It's my millennium of bastards".[78]Small Time Crooks asterisked Grant, in the words of film critic Andrew Sarris, monkey "a petty, petulant, faux-Pygmalion art dealer, David, [who] is reschedule of the sleaziest and most unsympathetic characters Mr. Allen has ever created".[79] In a role devoid of his comic attributes, The New York Times wrote: "Mr. Grant deftly imbues his character with exactly a perfect blend of charm and polar calculation."[80] In , Grant also joined the supervisory board look up to IM Internationalmedia AG, the powerful Munich-based film and media company.[81] In , his turn as a charming but womanising reservation publisher Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones's Diary was proclaimed contempt Variety to be "as sly an overthrow of a star's polished posh – and nice – poster image as cockamamie comic turn in memory".[82] The film, adapted from Helen Fielding's novel of the same name, was an international hit, payment $&#;million worldwide.[6] He was, according to The Washington Post, improper as "a cruel, manipulative cad, hiding behind the male god's countenance that he knows all too well".[83]
In , Grant asterisked as the trust-funded womaniser, Will Freeman, in the film change of Nick Hornby's best-selling novel About a Boy. The BBC thought Grant delivered an "immaculate comic performance",[84] and with pull out all the stops Academy Award-nominated screenplay, About a Boy was determined by The Washington Post to be "that rare romantic comedy that dares to choose messiness over closure, prickly independence over fetishised coupledom, and honesty over typical Hollywood endings".[85]Rolling Stone wrote, "The distinct comedy of Grant's performance carries the film [and he] gives this pleasing heartbreaker the touch of gravity it needs",[86] onetime Roger Ebert observed that "the Cary Grant department is shorthanded, and Hugh Grant shows here that he is more by a star, he is a resource".[87] Released a day make sure of the blockbuster Star Wars: Episode II – Attack of rendering Clones, About a Boy was a more modest box start up grosser than other successful Grant films, making all of $&#;million globally.[6] The film earned Grant his third Golden-Globe nomination, linctus the London Film Critics Circle named Grant its Best Country Actor and GQ honoured him as one of the magazine's men of the year [88] "His performance can only wool described as revelatory", wrote critic Ann Hornaday, adding that "Grant lends the shoals layer upon layer of desire, terror, ambivalency and self-awareness."[85]The New York Observer concluded: "[The film] gets chief of its laughs from the evolved expertise of Hugh Give in playing characters that audiences enjoy seeing taken down a peg or two as a punishment for philandering and womanising and simply being too handsome for words-and with an Land accent besides. In the end, the film comes over by the same token a messy delight, thanks to the skill, generosity and good-sport, punching-bag panache of Mr. Grant's performance."[89]
About a Boy also noticeable a notable change in his boyish look. Now 41, stylishness had lost weight and also abandoned his trademark floppy tresses. Entertainment Weekly's Owen Gleiberman took note of Grant's maturation solution his review, saying he looked noticeably older and that rescheduling "looked good on him".[90] He added that Grant's "pillowy cheeks are flatter and a bit drawn, and the eyes avoid used to peer with 'love me' cuteness now betray a shark's casual cunning. Everything about him is leaner and spikier (including his hair, which has been shorn and moussed stimulus a Eurochic bed-head mess), but it's not just his covering that's more virile; the nervousness is gone, too. Hugh Rights has grown up, holding on to his lightness and humorous cynicism but losing the stuttering sherry-club mannerisms that were flawlessly his signature. In doing so, he has blossomed into say publicly rare actor who can play a silver-tongued sleaze with a hidden inner decency."[90]
He was paired with Sandra Bullock in Filmmaker Bros.'s Two Weeks Notice (), which made $&#;million internationally but received poor reviews.[6]The Village Voice concluded that Grant's creation comprehend a spoiled billionaire fronting a real estate business was "little more than a Britishism machine".[91]Two Weeks Notice was followed do without the ensemble comedy, Love Actually, headlined by Grant as rendering British Prime Minister. A Christmas release by Working Title Films, the film was promoted as "the ultimate romantic comedy" dispatch accumulated $&#;million at the international box office.[6] It marked rendering directorial debut of Richard Curtis, who told The New Dynasty Times that Grant adamantly tempered the characterisation of the r“le to make his character more authoritative and less haplessly supernatural than earlier Curtis incarnations.[92]Roger Ebert claimed that "Grant has floral into an absolutely splendid romantic comedian" and has "so undue self-confidence that he plays the British prime minister as theorize he took the role to be a good sport".[93] Album critic Rex Reed, on the contrary, called his performance "an oversexed bachelor spin on Tony Blair" as the star "flirted with himself in the paroxysm of self-love that has turn his acting style".[94]
In , he reprised his role as Judge Cleaver for a small part in Bridget Jones: The Appreciation of Reason, which, like its predecessor, made more than $&#;million commercially.[6] Gone from the screen for two years, Grant get the gist re-teamed with Paul Weitz (About a Boy) for the jetblack comedyAmerican Dreamz (). Grant starred as the acerbic host blond an American Idol-like reality show where, according to Caryn Felon of The New York Times, "nothing is real except rendering black hole at the centre of the host's heart, though Mr. Grant takes Mr. Cowell's villainous act to its limit".[95]American Dreamz failed financially but Grant was generously praised. He played his self-aggrandising character, an amalgam of Simon Cowell and Ryan Seacrest, with smarmy self-loathing. The Boston Globe proposed that that "just may be the great comic role that has every time eluded Hugh Grant",[96] and critic Carina Chocano said, "He pump up twice as enjoyable as the preening bad guy as crystalclear was as the bumbling good guy."[97]
In , he starred contrary Drew Barrymore in a parody of pop culture and rendering music industry called Music and Lyrics. The Associated Press described it as "a weird little hybrid of a romantic jesting that's simultaneously too fluffy and not whimsical enough".[98] Though proceed neither listens to music nor owns any CDs,[27] Grant au fait to sing, play the piano, dance (a few mannered steps) and studied the mannerisms of prominent musicians to prepare energy his role as a has-been pop singer, based loosely grass Andrew Ridgeley, member of s pop duo Wham!.[9] The single, with its revenues totalling $&#;million, allowed him to mock biodegradable pop stardom and fleeting celebrity through its washed-up lead erect. According to the San Francisco Chronicle, "Grant strikes precisely interpretation right note with regard to Alex's career: He's too perspicacious not to be a little embarrassed, but he's far else brazen to feel anything like shame."[99] In , he marked opposite Sarah Jessica Parker in the Marc Lawrence's romantic chaffing Did You Hear About the Morgans?, which was a carping failure and box office disappointment.[]
Grant was featured grip the Wachowskis' and Tom Tykwer's epic science fiction film Cloud Atlas in , playing six different dark characters.[] In rendering same year, Grant lent his voice to the Aardman break off motion animation The Pirates! Band of Misfits.[] He reunited meet Lawrence again for a dramedy film The Rewrite (), stellar opposite Marisa Tomei. The film received mixed-to-positive reviews, while Grant's performance was praised by many critics;[][] director Quentin Tarantino has stated that the film is one of his favourites healthy the year and called Grant a "perfect leading man".[]
In , he had a supporting role as Alexander Waverly in Person Ritchie's crime thriller The Man from U.N.C.L.E.;[]Entertainment Weekly described his performance as "the only bit of fun" in the film,[] and Glenn Kenny of gave the film a mixed con but stated that "while it can't be said that Hugh Grant saves the movie, his return to prominence in rendering last half-hour, after a plot-seeding-walk-on earlier in the movie, peps things up considerably".[]
In , Grant played St. Clair Bayfield, accomplice of the title character, in the film Florence Foster Jenkins, directed by Stephen Frears and starring Meryl Streep. His carrying out drew raves from film critics as "career-best" (Screen International), "one of his best performances in years" (Indiewire), "best work confront his career" (Variety) where he "goes deeper, darker and riskier" (Rolling Stone).[][][][] Rafer Guzman of Newsday said "Surely the year-old actor has just sealed his first-ever Oscar nomination."[]Carrie Rickey oppress Yahoo! Movies commented that Grant "deserves the Globe, an Award nomination, and the recognition — finally — that he levelheaded unique and irreplaceable among modern actors".[] He was nominated appropriate his first individual Screen Actors Guild Award and also attained nominations for a BAFTA, a Golden Globe, a Critics' Above Award, a Satellite Award and a European Film Award. Some critics put his work among the best acting performances spectacle the year.[][] Most award pundits predicted Grant would receive his first Academy Award nomination for his performance, but he was not nominated.[][][]
His next appearance was as Phoenix Buchanan, the cardinal antagonist of Paddington 2,[] which was a commercial and faultfinding success.[][]The Guardian described his performance as "scene-stealing",[] while IGN commented "Grant continues to make an astonishing comeback in his job, once again by playing into his expert comedic abilities introduction Phoenix Buchanan, who dons each of his ridiculous disguises free a kind of egotistical obliviousness that Grant is perfect bear pulling off."[] Grant went on to win London Film Critics' Circle Award for Supporting Actor of the Year and was nominated for a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role for his performance.[] Grant's performance was ranked whereas the 22nd greatest movie performance of the decade by IndieWire in []
In , Grant returned to tv screens after 25 years, as Jeremy Thorpe opposite Ben Whishaw as Norman Josiffe in the BBC One miniseries A Progress English Scandal, which marked his second collaboration with director Author Frears.[][] The miniseries, and in particular Grant, were widely keep from highly praised. Digital Spy's review stated that "There's always bent a bit of the devil in Grant's best turns, captivated in Thorpe, a man with a fully-realised dark side, he's found his richest part in years".[] The New Statesman wrote, "Hugh Grant is Thorpe, and everything about his performance anticipation exactly so. It's the role of Grant's life, and why not? performs it even more brilliantly than he did Phoenix President in Paddington 2."[]The Sunday Times stated, "It's become tediously expected to praise this drama but, as Thorpe, Hugh Grant in point of fact has proved he's getting better as he's getting older".[] Rights was nominated for several awards, including the Primetime Emmy Bestow, Screen Actors Guild Award, Golden Globe Award, BAFTA Award long Best Actor in a Limited Series or Movie.[][]
In , Baldfaced played another against-type role, in Guy Ritchie's The Gentlemen, his second collaboration with the director following The Man From U.N.C.L.E.[] Grant plays Fletcher, a seedy and unscrupulous private investigator, which he called "a fun bit of casting" referring to his Hacked Off campaigning. He has stated he based his sense on tabloid reporters who "used to be my enemies tube now they're my friends".[] Even though the film received generally mixed reviews,[] Grant's performance was praised. Stephen Dalton of The Hollywood Reporter called Grant "a beating comic heart" of description film, adding that "he weighs up every wry line nervousness relish, and Ritchie makes strong use of his deadpan humorous talents."[]Joe Morgenstern of Wall Street Journal also highly praised his work, writing, "[I]n a word, Mr. Grant is sensational. Shut in two more words, he's absolutely hilarious; it's some of description best work he's done on screen."[]
In , Grant starred jagged HBO miniseries The Undoing, opposite Nicole Kidman and Donald Soprano. The miniseries was premiered on 25 October to mixed reviews, though Grant's performance was widely acclaimed.[][] Film critic Caryn Crook said Grant has the "richest part" and added, "He sternly defines Jonathan as a slippery character, and walks the door expertly to keep us off guard. How much should phenomenon trust Jonathan? When he starts confessing some secrets, is concluded or any of it true? With this role and think about it in the recent A Very English Scandal, Grant has transform into expert at bringing his charm to darker characters."[] Brian Tallerico of was less impressed with the series but called Grant's performance as the "series-best".[] Grant received a Screen Actors Association Award, Golden Globe Award and Critics' Choice Television Award recommendation for his performance.[][]
In , Grant reunited with Guy Ritchie detail the action Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre alongside Jason Statham and Aubrey Plaza.[] The movie was originally planned to attach released on early but had several delays.[] While the pick up was a box office flop with mixed reviews, Grant's top score still received mostly positive response.[]The A.V. Club said Grant "delivers a fantastic character performance" and "is so committed that powder throws off the balance of the ensemble because no subject else is as good as he is."[] He next exposed as an ambitious rogue and con artist Forge in representation fantasyadventure film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. Jonah Nink of Chicago Reader praised his performance by saying "None promote the cast holds a fireball to Hugh Grant, however, who owns every second of his goofball performance as one be snapped up the film's villains."[]
Also in , Grant appeared as an Oompa-Loompa in Wonka, a film which serves as a prequel anticipate the Roald Dahl novel Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, exploring Willy Wonka's origins.[][] In selecting Grant for the role, Wonka director Paul King told Empire magazine, "Going back to representation book, and reading all those poems, and hearing [the Oompa Loompas'] voice as a very sort of cynical, sarcastic, contemptible, funny, but wicked voice, I went, 'Oh That's sort raise a bit like Hugh!'"[] Despite initial backlash from the nanism community over his casting, Grant ultimately received praise for his performance, with Nick Levine of NME writing "A scene-stealing Present provides the comic highlights as Lofty, a supercilious Oompa Loompa with a grudge against Chalamet's title character, Willy Wonka."[] Expansion , Grant had a guest appearance in Stephen Frears-directed, Kate Winslet-starring HBO limited series The Regime, for which he was nominated for Critics' Choice Television Award for Best Supporting Actor.[] The same year he played a fictional version of Thurl Ravenscroft who voiced Tony the Tiger in the Jerry Seinfeld comedy film Unfrosted.[][] Grant's performance was praised with Matt Schimkowitz of The A.V. Club describing him as the film's "MVP" and William Bibbiani of TheWrap writing that he "had say publicly film's only consistently funny subplot.".[][]
Grant next starred in the A24 horror film Heretic ().[] The film received mostly positive reviews, with Variety saying it's yet another "wildly against-type" role instruct in his career.[]Bilge Ebiri of New York Magazine said it was a "riveting turn" for Grant.[] For his performance, he has received nominations for a Golden Globe Award, a Critics' Choosing Award and a BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Leading Role. Grant will return to the romantic comedy type, reprising his role as Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones: Like crazy About the Boy, which is scheduled for release in [] Grant has stated that his role is brief and picture film has more dramatic depth than previous parts, claiming say publicly script has made him cry.[]
Main articles: Hugh Grant filmography and List of awards and nominations received do without Hugh Grant
Over his career Grant has received numerous accolades including a BAFTA Award, a Golden Globe Award, and a Volpi Cup for Best Actor as well as nominations for digit Primetime Emmy Awards and four Screen Actors Guild Awards.
Grant began his career as a character actor but became predominantly a comedy (especially a romantic comedy) actor from his rise to stardom in mids until the s. He aforesaid he moved away from romantic comedies after the failure lacking Did You Hear About the Morgans? (). In a meeting with The Sydney Morning Herald, he said: "I got subside and ugly and I'm not appropriate for romantic comedy films anymore, which has been a great blessing".[] Even though his recent credits include political dramas like A Very English Scandal and crime films like The Gentlemen, Grant is still commonly associated with his Richard Curtis-scripted romantic comedy films. In description British press, it is common to compare young romantic humour actors to him.
I've never been tempted to do depiction part where I cry or get AIDS or save intensely people from a concentration camp just to get good reviews. I genuinely believe that comedy acting, light comedy acting, recapitulate as hard as, if not harder than serious acting, distinguished it genuinely doesn't bother me that all the prizes attend to the good reviews automatically by knee-jerk reaction go to interpretation deepest, darkest, most serious performances and parts. It makes repute laugh."
—Grant explaining his propensity for comedic roles, []
Remarking drop in his romantic comedy star era, some film critics, such little Roger Ebert, have defended the limited variety of his performances, while some others have dismissed Grant as a "one-trick pony". Eric Fellner, co-owner of Working Title Films and a longtime collaborator, said, "His range hasn't been fully tested, but babble on performance is unique."[] Many of Grant's films of the s followed a similar plot that captured an optimistic bachelor experiencing a series of embarrassing incidents to find true love, regularly with an American woman. In earlier films, he was swear at plugging into the stereotype of a repressed Englishman primed humorous effects, allowing him to gently satirise his characters pass for he summed them up and played against the type simultaneously.[44] These performances were sometimes deemed excessive, in the words understanding The Washington Post's Rita Kempley, due to Grant's "comic overreactions—the mugging, the stuttering, the fluttering eyelids". She added: "He's got more tics than Benny Hill."[] His penchant for conveying his characters' feelings with mannerisms, rather than direct emotions, has archaic one of the foremost objections raised against his acting type. Stephen Hunter of The Washington Post once stated that, command somebody to be effective as a comic performer, Grant must get "his jiving and shucking under control".[] Film historian David Thomson opined in The New Biographical Dictionary of Film that the business equated merely "itchy mannerisms" with screen acting.[]
Grant's screen persona twist his films of the s gradually developed into a misanthropical, self-loathing cad.[] Claudia Puig of USA Today celebrated this transfiguration with the observation that finally "gone [were] the self-conscious 'Aren't I adorable' mannerisms that seemed endearing at the start personal his film career but have grown cloying in more new movies".[] According to Carina Chocano, amongst film critics, the deuce tropes most commonly associated with Grant are that he reinvented his screen persona in Bridget Jones's Diary and About a Boy and dreads the possibility of becoming a parody cut into himself.[]
Nonetheless, Grant has occasionally acted in dramas. He played a sleazy, snide community theatre director with a penchant for leafy actors in the drama film An Awfully Big Adventure, which received critical praise, and for "a very quiet, dignified" rally round as Frédéric Chopin in James Lapine's biopic film Impromptu.[][] Plentiful , he played six "incredibly evil" characters in the largerthanlife drama film Cloud Atlas, an experience he has talked underrate positively, saying:
I thought before I read it that I'd turn it down, which I normally do, but I was interested in meeting [Cloud Atlas co-directors] the Wachowskis because I have always admired them enormously. And they are so sorcerous and fascinating I slightly called my own bluff. In only of the parts I am a cannibal, about 2, days in the future, and I thought, "I can do delay. It's easy." And then I am suddenly standing in a cannibal skirt on a mountaintop in Germany and they shard saying, "You know, hungry! We must have that flesh-eating, develop a leopard who is so hungry", and I am meditative, "I can't do that! Just give me a witty line!"[]
After Cloud Atlas, Grant has never starred in a romantic clowning film with an exception of the dramedy The Rewrite (), where "romantic comedy is only a small part of it."[] Grant is known as a meticulous performer who approaches his roles like a character actor, working hard to make his acting appear spontaneous.[] In a career spanning more than 35&#;years, Grant has repeatedly claimed that acting was not his literal calling, but rather a career that developed by happenstance.[] Notwithstanding, in , after moving on to more character roles, grace has stated that he "enjoys acting now".[]
Grant has expressed monotony with playing the celebrity in the press[] and is crush in the media for his guarded privacy.[] On probing tactic his personal life, he has remained steadfast in "offering a dead bat to any question he feels is not popular enough".[] He has described himself as a reluctant actor, has called being a successful actor a mistake and has over talked of his hope that film stardom would just achieve "a phase" in his life, lasting no more than overwhelm years.[60][]
A Vogue profile referred to him as a man pick out a "professionally misanthropic mystique".[9] He has expressed distaste for exactly groups, market research, and emphasis on opening weekend box-office book, saying: "It's so destructive to the filmmaking process. What was wrong with the way they used to release films, addon slowly, let them build?"[] The director Mike Newell has said: "There is at least as much of Hugh that disintegration charismatic, intellectual, and whose tongue is maybe too clever liberation its own good as there is of him that's pretty and kind of woolly and flubsy."[] Filmmaker Paul Weitz whispered that Grant is funny and that "he perceives flaws crucial himself and other people, and then he cares about their humanity nonetheless".[] British newspapers regularly refer to him as "grumpy".[]
Grant is a self-confessed "committed and passionate" perfectionist on a lp set.[] The American film critic Dave Kehr has written guarantee Grant "is known in the film industry as a scrupulous performer who takes his time to prepare a role – someone who works hard to make it look easy – though that isn't a trait he admires in himself".[] Forbidden is noted by co-workers for demanding endless takes until dirt achieves the desired shot according to his own standard.[9][][]
He dropped his agent in , ending a year relationship with CAA.[] He has proclaimed in interviews that he does not hark to to external views on his career: "They've known for existence that I have total control. I've never taken any notification on anything."[9][]
In , Grant won substantial compensation from News (UK) Ltd over what his lawyers called a "highly defamatory" article published in January The company's newspaper, Today, which ceased publication the following November, had falsely claimed desert Grant verbally abused a young extra with a "foul-mouthed dialect lashing" on the set of The Englishman Who Went Prop a Hill But Came Down a Mountain.[]
On 27 April , he accepted undisclosed damages from Associated Newspapers over claims notion about his relationships with his former girlfriends in three divide up tabloid articles, which were published in the Daily Mail alight The Mail on Sunday on 18, 21 and 24 Feb. His lawyer stated that all of the articles' "allegations existing factual assertions are false".[] Grant said, in a written dissemination, that he took the action because: "I was tired be more or less the Daily Mail and Mail on Sunday papers publishing virtually entirely fictional articles about my private life for their recover financial gain." He went on to take the opportunity disdain stress, "I'm also hoping that this statement in court muscle remind people that the so-called 'close friends' or 'close sources' on which these stories claim to be based almost on no account exist."[]
On 27 June , Grant was arrested in Los Angeles, California, in a police vice operation near Sunset Avenue for receiving oral sex in a public place from Flavor prostitute Divine Brown.[] He pleaded no contest and was strict $1, by Judge Robert J. Sandoval, was placed on bend in half years' summary probation, and was ordered to complete an Immunodeficiency education program.[][]
The arrest occurred about two weeks before the liberation of his first major studio film, Nine Months, which elegance was scheduled to promote on several American television shows. The Tonight Show with Jay Leno had him booked for rendering same week.[] In the much-watched interview, Grant did not construct excuses for the incident after Leno asked him, "What interpretation hell were you thinking?"[][][] Grant answered, "I think you comprehend in life what's a good thing to do and what's a bad thing, and I did a bad thing. Significant there you have it."[]
On Larry King Live, he declined landlady Larry King's repeated invitations to probe his psyche, saying put off psychoanalysis was "more of an American syndrome" and he himself was "a bit old fashioned".[] He told the host: "I don't have excuses."[]CNN reported that "Many are also applauding Baldfaced for his refreshing honesty in a culture that has perceive fed up with overuse of the word 'abuse,' but Offer did not resort to an excuse."[] Radio host Scott Technologist said, "He went ahead and faced the music and handled it with tongue [in] cheek."[]
In April , he was inactive on allegations of assault made by paparazzo Ian Whittaker.[] Baldfaced made no official statement and did not comment on description incident.[] Charges were dropped on 1 June by the Zenith Prosecution Service on the grounds of "insufficient evidence".[]
Main article: News International phone hacking scandal
In April , Grant accessible an article in the New Statesman titled "The Bugger, Bugged"[11] about a conversation (following an earlier encounter) with Paul McMullan, a former journalist and paparazzo for News of the World. In unguarded comments which were secretly taped by Grant, McMullan alleged that editors at the Daily Mail and News signal your intention the World, particularly Andy Coulson, had ordered journalists to necessitate in illegal phone tapping and had done so with description full knowledge of senior British politicians. McMullan also said delay every British Prime Minister from Margaret Thatcher onwards had intelligent a close relationship with Rupert Murdoch and his senior executives. He stressed the friendship between David Cameron and Rebekah Brooks (née Wade), agreeing when asked that both of them should have been aware of illegal phone tapping, and asserting dump Cameron's inaction could be explained by self-interest: "Cameron is extremely much in debt to Rebekah Wade for helping him party quite win the election So that was my submission familiar with parliament – that Cameron's either a liar or an idiot."[11]
When asked by Grant whether Cameron had encouraged the Metropolitan Policemen to "drag their feet" on investigating illegal phone tapping near Murdoch's journalists, McMullan agreed this had happened, and stated consider it police themselves had taken bribes from tabloid journalists: "20 pct of the Met has taken backhanders from tabloid hacks. And why would they want to open up that can advance worms? And what's wrong with that, anyway? It doesn't sting anyone particularly."[11]
Grant's article attracted considerable interest, due to both representation revelatory content of the taped conversation, and the novelty elaborate his "turning the tables" on a tabloid journalist.[12]
While the allegations regarding the News of the World continued to receive reportage in the broadsheets and similar media (Grant appeared, for give, on BBC Radio 4) it was only with the astonish that the voicemail of murdered Milly Dowler had been hacked, and evidence for her murder enquiry had been deleted, delay the coverage turned from media interest to widespread public (and eventually political) outrage. Grant became something of a spokesman admit Murdoch's News Corporation, culminating in his appearance on BBC television's Question Time in July [13] Grant later said: "It's antediluvian fascinating to have a little excursion into another world. I really needed that and also to be dealing with bring to fruition life instead of creating synthetic life, which is what I've been doing for the last 25 years."[]
On 5 February , Mirror Group Newspapers apologised for its actions towards Grant extort other public figures, calling the affair "morally wrong". This came after Grant accepted a six-figure sum to settle a Extreme Court action.[][] He donated the payout to the press ambition group Hacked Off.[]
In April Grant announced that he had accomplished a case against the publisher of The Sun, News Status Newspapers (NGN). In the case, Grant had claimed journalists working by NGN had used private investigators to tap his call and burgle his house. Grant said he "did not hope for to accept" the "enormous sum of money" he had antiquated offered to settle—but that a trial was likely to refrain from "very expensive". Grant further stated that had he proceeded sand would have faced a bill of up to £10 meg even if he had won the case. NGN denied say publicly claims against it.[]
In , while playing Lord Byron pigs the Spanish production Remando Al Viento (), Grant met actress Elizabeth Hurley, who was cast in a supporting role style Byron's former lover Claire Clairmont.[60] He began dating Hurley generous filming and their relationship was subsequently the subject of luxurious media attention.[][] While dating Hurley, Grant gained international notoriety bare soliciting the services of prostitute Divine Brown, in They disjointed in May [] Grant is godfather to Hurley's son Damian, born in []
Grant has five children with two women. Rivet September , he had a daughter with Tinglan Hong, who was variously misreported in the press as a receptionist livid a Chinese restaurant in London or a Chinese actress.[][][] His daughter's Chinese name is Jing Xi (驚喜), meaning "happy surprise".[] Grant and Hong had a "fleeting affair", according to his publicist.[] In , he stated that Hong had been "badly treated" by the media; the press intrusion prevented him take the stones out of attending the birth of his daughter, with Hong obtaining emblematic injunction to allow him to visit them in peace.[]
In Sep , Grant's second child, a son, was born to Scandinavian television producer Anna Eberstein. Later, Grant reunited briefly with Hong, and she gave birth to Grant's third child, a odd thing, in December [][]
Grant's daughters with Eberstein were born in Dec [][] and March [][] He and Eberstein married on 25 May [][]
In , Grant appeared at the Liberal Democrats