THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Wednesday, July 12, 1995 TAG: 9507120032
SECTION: DAILY BREAK PAGE: E1 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: By MAL VINCENT, MOVIE CRITIC
LENGTH: Long : 143 lines
EVEN AS HE TALKED about the pressures of the day, a smiling Hugh Grant was all the things he was expected to be - boyish, British and constantly kidding.
Who could have known that in less than 24 hours he would be in the Los Angeles police department facing a charge that could send Cinderfella back to the cinders?
He was seemingly on top of the world, with a salary of $6 million per film and a long-standing relationship with his international-beauty girlfriend. Yet he risked it all for a few moments with a Sunset Boulevard hooker on the night following the interview.
So who can figure what was wrong with him?
The pressures, which reach a pinnacle today with the release of his first American film, were building.
``When you think about it,'' he mused, ``if you put together all the budgets of the 17 films I've done before, they probably still wouldn't match this one movie.''
He was talking about ``Nine Months,'' the comedy-romance that opens in several thousand theaters today. In it, he is typecast as a guy who has it all - a thriving career and a near-perfect, five-year relationship with a woman played by red-headed star Julianne Moore.
One day she announces she is pregnant and that, among other things, he'll have to sell his beloved sports car to get a more practical vehicle. ``What would we do?'' she asks. ``Tie the baby to the roof of your car?''
Grant was actively pursued for the above-the-title starring role by Chris Columbus, who has turned out such comedy hits as ``Home Alone'' and ``Mrs. Doubtfire.''
``There hasn't been this kind of screen leading man since Cary Grant,'' the director said. ``He's willing, on the set, to go for whatever you ask, to take every comedy chance. I had been worried that he might be perceived as just a matinee idol, a pretty boy, perhaps serious and stuffy. Instead, he's a natural clown.''
The 34-year-old British actor with the unruly hair and the toothy grin reached international prominence when ``Four Weddings and a Funeral,'' a comedy produced in England and co-starring Andie MacDowell became the surprise hit of the year.
Grant's American debut is another thing. ``Everyone on the set of `Nine Months' kept talking about the risks and whether it would be a hit,'' Grant said.
``I would sit in my trailer and wonder if I had to be three times better because they were paying me three times more money. You feel it. You feel the pressure.''
You can't be with him five minutes without his turning the conversation toward his girlfriend, model Elizabeth Hurley, with whom he's been associated for seven years. ``Elizabeth thought I should explore the theme of this picture,'' he laughed. ``Actually, she would be an even more reluctant parent than me. This is a movie about how wonderful it is to become a parent and, yet, I can tell you, I don't plan to have any babies any time soon - at least not on purpose.''
Grant said that the subject of marriage never comes up between him and Hurley, who, since he became famous, has snared a million- dollar contract as spokeswoman for Estee Lauder. ``The only time it comes up is when my mother suggests it,'' he said.
Since this interview, and the charges, Hurley has been chased by photographers and journalists whenever she goes out in public and was last seen headed for a Paris flight, with a car loaded with baggage following her sports car. She has limited comments to cryptic things like the fact that she is ``hurt'' and ``alone.''
A break-up, though, would be more difficult than just a walk-out. The two have formed their own production company, Simian Productions - set to release their own movies via Castle Rock Productions. ``It's named for the monkey in us,'' he quipped.
Scandal is not strange to the American film industry and there is every indication that he, in spite of all the attention, hadn't yet come to realize just how famous he is.
As for his appearance at the Academy Awards this year, he said with a laugh, ``I hear it was a quite exciting evening. I wouldn't know. I was quite drunk all evening. I don't remember anything.''
On the set of ``Nine Months,'' he said he compared tabloid stories with co-star Tom Arnold. ``Tom is the one who has been in the tabloids as much as anyone,'' Grant said. ``His personal story could be filmed as a miniseries. I could enact my favorite moments from Tom Arnold's life. He advised me to tell everything and be done with it. I thought about it and realized I didn't have much to tell.''
In ``Nine Months,'' Arnold plays a loud parent who is about to become a parent again. For one scene, he has to kiss Hugh Grant to revive him on the beach. ``He's not a bad kisser, for a guy,'' Arnold quipped when contacted for comment. ``Actually, Hugh and I have the same approach to comedy. We like to go for it, and to go for spontaneity. I don't like a lot of rehearsal and Hugh doesn't either.''
Moore concurred that ``Hugh is a really good screen kisser - and there is a difference between screen kissing and real kissing. It has to do with camera angles and such.''
Of Moore, Grant said, ``she's tip top. She comes from a stage background - very practical. I think they wanted a real actress for that part - a serious actress to counter all the physical comedy. Julianne is almost too good. I like people to be slightly bad so that I can patronize them,'' he said with a laugh.
Grant grew up in a middle-class London family. His father was a carpet salesman and his mother was a teacher. He went to Oxford and majored in English - a place, according to him, ``where there was an awful lot of academic posing. They kept telling me that it was founded in 1123.''
His first show business foray was with a comedy troupe, ironically, called the Jockeys of Norfolk. He got a job selling doilies at Harrod's department store in London. For several years, he wrote a book review column in the London Daily Mirror.
He met Hurley when he starred as Lord Byron in a period film opposite her. ``I think it was the costume she fancied,'' he said. ``It's never been the same since I wore jeans. I think she likes guys in britches.''
Grant's career may be at risk with the acceptance or lack of acceptance for ``Nine Months,'' but he will get other chances. Two more Grant films are set for release this year. ``An Awfully Big Adventure'' is scheduled to open July 21. In it, according to the actor, ``I play a nasty, tyrannical theater director - very screwed up and frustrated.'' In the fall, he has a cameo appearance in the period piece ``Restoration.''
Scripts are pouring in by the dozen - or, at least, were before the arrest. ``I'm too picky,'' he said. ``It's difficult for me to make a commitment. I read and I ponder and I wonder which should I do.''
But what if it all ends in police court, if the public gets too saturated with the reports and writes him off?
In the pre-arrest interview, there wasn't a chance to ask him that, but his comments seem to give an answer.
``If it all ended today, it would be nice in some ways,'' he said. ``The pressure would be off. In another life, I could be a groundhog and never have to go in front of a camera again.''
He was laughing as he said, ``What would happen if `Nine Months' were to flop? Would I go halfway back and start again? It would be nice if my balloon just gradually deflated rather than exploded all at once. It would be humiliating to disappear instantly, but not bad at all to just gradually deflate.'' ILLUSTRATION: Color photos
PHIL BRAY
Hugh Grant and Julianne Moore, above and at right, discover the joys
of parenthood in ``Nine Months.'' The comedy-romance opens
nationwide today.
KEYWORDS: PROFILE BIOGRAPHY MOVIES
by CNB