THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Thursday, May 18, 1995 TAG: 9505180064
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
TYPE: Interview
SOURCE: BY MAL VINCENT, ENTERTAINMENT WRITER
LENGTH: Long : 165 lines
A LITTLE OVER A year ago, Hugh Grant was known only to fans of ``serious'' British movies. Now, he's the international dreamboat that women would most like to take to four weddings, but no funerals.
He's the Englishman Who Made a Romantic Comedy and Walked Out a Star.
``It's quite titilating to be recognized,'' he admitted, with a seriousness that smacked of mischief. ``In fact, on days when no one recognizes me, it's quite unnerving. I have to summon up all my niceness, though, when people want me to pose for pictures in their holiday hats. Actually, it's very simple. I'll do anything to get attention.''
Hugh Grant is putting us on.
In a serious moment, he admits that ``things are looking up a bit. Actually, my life is quite unrecognizable. Really. But I still think as if I'm an unemployed actor. It's best, you know. I'm aware that the bubble might burst at any moment.''
Grant became an overnight sensation when ``Four Weddings and a Funeral,'' a sweet little romantic comedy from England, exploded into a surprise hit last year. He played a perennial bachelor who is constantly going to the weddings of friends. Then, he meets an American girl, Andie MacDowell, and, well, the rest is romance. It ended up winning an Oscar nomination as best movie of the year.
Now, he's scheduled to appear in four movies this year. Currently playing is ``The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain,'' a wee Welsh fable about a village that is distinguished only by its mountain. When Grant, as one of two map makers, comes to town and declares that the mountain is only high enough to be a hill, the villagers rise up in arms.
It's a low-budget film, an ensemble piece in which the colorful villagers steal most of the scenes. It's certainly not a star vehicle for Grant.
``Actually, I had signed a contract,'' Grant said. ``That kind of thing is to be honored. Besides, this movie was funny, charming and had a natural resonance to it.''
Colm Meaney, who plays the roistering innkeeper Morgan the Goat in the film, remembers that, ``we were just starting filming when `Four Weddings and a Funeral' took off. It was to Hugh's credit that he stuck with this little film. Suddenly every tabloid paper in Britain tried to get to him. We were suspicious of every milkman that made deliveries. The cast and crew kind of closed ranks to protect Hugh. I don't know what skeletons he might have in his closet, but, in any case, it's none of their bloody business.''
Grant said he has been offered all kinds of projects. ``Sure, I can do anything I like right now,'' he said, ``but what to do? Do you do a small film? A big comedy? A European film? I've decided just to read the scripts and not plan anything. You can't plan.''
Contrary to all the reports, the James Bond, 007, role was ``never discussed.'' What he did accept was a big 20th Century-Fox comedy, ``Nine Months,'' in which he plays a reluctant father-to-be.
``I play this guy who is very happy with life and with his girlfriend when, to my horror, she's pregnant.'' The wackier characters are played by Tom Arnold and Joan Cusack. It's his first made-in-Hollywood movie.
``It seems that everyone is a great deal worried about it being a big hit,'' he said. The film, directed by Chris Columbus, who made ``Mrs. Doubtfire,'' is Fox's big comedy entry of the summer.
Grant is most widely compared to another debonair, cool, romantic-comedy star, Cary Grant. ``It would be nice if they would stop doing that,'' he said. ``The man was a genius. It's not helping me, at all, to compare.''
Sitting in a hotel suite in New York, the 34-year-old Grant wore a sports coat and a blue shirt, paired with jeans - just the casual, preppy look you'd expect from him. When asked if success had changed him, he retorted, ``Sure, I'm very big-headed now and don't talk to any of my old friends. No! The main thing that has happened is that I got a parking space at the British Broadcasting Company. That is the biggest event of my life, so far.''
Although ``Four Weddings and a Funeral'' got a best picture Oscar nomination, he didn't get an expected nomination as best actor.
``I might have been a bit twisted if one of the five nominees hadn't been excellent,'' he said, ``but no matter. I was so drunk at the Oscars that I don't remember anything. I know I did present an award of some type, and I read off some lines. Backstage, I met Clint Eastwood and was quite, you know, thrilled. Not knowing what to say, I said `Are you presenting an award, too?' He said, `No, I'm here just to pick up some steel.' I learned later, of course, that he was there to accept a life achievement award for himself. I felt quite looney.''
On his arm that night was his live-in girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, the model-actress who was recently named to become the official face for Estee Lauder cosmetics.
``We met on a movie set, and I was playing this historical person,'' he remembered. ``I think she fancied my costume more than me. When I wear jeans in real life, it's somewhat ordinary. She likes chaps in britches, I think.''
Asked if he and Elizabeth ever talk about marriage, he answered, ``No, we don't, but my mother does - all the time. Actually, Elizabeth and I argue most of the time. We got on marvelously well when we lived a country away from each other. She was in America, and I was in England. She's something of a slob. She leaves chewing gum wrappers around everywhere and empties her purse in the middle of the floor. She gets very irritated when I like to just drink beer and look at the soccer game, but I think we'll stay together because she's moved her dog in - back to England. Moving the dog is quite a big commitment. It's a German shepherd. The dog has eight rooms and a staff.''
When he won the Golden Globe Award, for best actor in a comedy, his acceptance speech, in which he said he ``liked the attention and would like more of it'' was the hit of the evening. When he called his parents, back in England, to tell them he had won a Golden Globe, according to him, ``My mother said, `That's nice, darling. We've been having a great deal of rain lately.' They know nothing about show business.''
Dad was a carpet salesman. Mom was a teacher. It was a solid middle-class upbringing with schooling at Oxford. His older brother, James, grew up to be a banker. Grant claims he became an actor because he was irresponsible and didn't seek a more reliable job. At one time, he wrote copy for an advertising agency. His break came in 1987 when he was cast as a sexually confused upper-class type in the Merchant-Ivory production ``Maurice,'' opposite James Wilby. The part got him noticed. He then played Lord Byron in ``Impromptu.'' (``An all right film but a bad wig,'' he remembered). Then there was ``White Mischief'' and ``The Lair of the White Worm.'' In ``The Remains of the Day,'' he played the young man to whom Anthony Hopkins tried, fitfully, to explain about sex.
``Sirens,'' a racy comedy in which he, again, played the repressed Englishman, was liked by the critics. ``Bitter Moon'' was also lauded. An offbeat film directed by Roman Polanski, Grant said it was one of his more unique film experiences.
``Roman never works in the morning, so we'd show up at noon and have a few glasses of wine. Then, he'd try to direct me in how to make love to his wife, Emmanuelle Seigner, who had the leading role. He'd yell at her that she had to be sexier. `How to you expect Hugh to make love to you, if you are this cool?' he'd yell. `After all, he is British. It takes a lot.' He'd tell her she was no actress anyway, and he should be committed to an asylum for putting her in the movie. She'd tell him off, too, yelling back to him about how terrible he was in bed. Emmanuelle loved to bare her breasts. She'd do it in restaurants, anywhere. She'd say `How do you like these?' `I'd say, `They are smashing Emmanuelle. You showed them to me yesterday, too.' ''
After ``Nine Months,'' he has a cameo in a historical film, ``Restoration,'' starring Meg Ryan and Robert Downey Jr. ``I prefer modern films,'' he said. ``In England, it seems we love to make fop flicks, with everyone dressed up. I think we are a bit afraid of modern films. It is so easy to hide behind all those costumes. I prefer modern stories, because I like to ad lib and be spontaneous.''
In the fall, he'll star in ``An Awfully Big Adventure,'' as an evil theater director. Then, maybe, ``Sense and Sensibility'' - ``Emma's film that's been hanging around so long,'' he said, referring to Oscar-winning actress Emma Thompson, who wrote the script.
With four movies out in America this year, he's taking the summer off. ``I'm a little frazzled,'' he admitted. ``I haven't yet developed the technique of getting it all done.
``This could all end quite immediately,'' he added. ``If I'm in a flop or two, I'll be right back where I started, which, after all, wouldn't be so bad, would it? It would be humiliating, though, if I just sank immediately. I'd like to be around a few years, at least, and then fade quietly away. That would be more seemly, and less embarrassing.'' ILLUSTRATION: [Color Photo]
Hugh Grant, of "Four Weddings and a Funeral" fame, will star in four
movies this year. "In fact," he says, "when no one recognizes me,
it's quite unnerving."
Tara Fitzgerald stars with Hugh Grant in a fable about a village
distinguished by a mountain.
Grant found quick stardom in 1994's hit "Four Weddings and a
Funeral"
MIRAMAX FILMS
Hugh Grant declares that the town's prized mountain is only a hill
in ``The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill and Came Down a Mountain.''
by CNB