"Hugh Grant"

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Hey guys, I'm off to the supermarket to do some grocery shopping.

And I thought you guys would like to know what's on my list.

Here we go. Ready?

Yogurt, granola, tomato sauce, ketchup, dried fruit,

baked beans, nut butter, chocolate milk, cereal bars,

bread, condiments, salad dressings, protein bars, candy, tea, crackers,

energy drinks, canned fruit, juice, coffee, soda, ice cream,

barbecue sauce, and cakes. Welcome to SmartList.
Smart. Smart.
Smart. Smart.
Smart. I had a great day yesterday.
Actually, remember we were talking about my heart bullshit? Oh, yeah. Did you get a new one yesterday? No, I didn't get a new one, but I went and ate lunch by myself.
I had really bad sushi. Then I went and got, I bought two books, and I had an ice cream cone on the way home.
I was like, this is it. This is solo? This is by myself.
This is to make your heart better? Yeah, it was. And then I went to the bookstore.
Hey, by the way, do bookstores make you want to poop a little bit? Yeah, yeah. You know what I mean? No, I don't.
There's something about just standing on your feet that long. I think gravity takes over.
No, but it's like the coziness of a bookstore, the coziness of like a pharmacy, you know?

No? Hang on.

Or like a gift shop.

Sorry, coziness? No.

Yeah, there's a comparison between a bookstore and a pharmacy?

Well, yeah. A similarity?

Like the quietness of it

and the coziness of it. It really

gets my stomach going. This hypochondriac

finds pharmacies comforting

and cozy.

So, JB, a bookstore

is a place

I'm sorry. gets my stomach going.
This hypochondriac finds pharmacies comforting and cozy. So, JB, a bookstore is a place where...
Okay. Which seems like a perfect segue to go into something we should talk about just for two seconds.
Smartless Media is now doing a new show called Clueless. Yes.
I've heard about this. Yes.
You both were on an episode, actually our first episode. Yeah.
And it's out now. So this is not a podcast starring Alicia Silverstone, right? No, that is correct.
Very good. It stars the host.
Very good. The host is Elliot Kalin.
He's the former head writer of The Daily Show with Jon Stewart, Mystery Science Theater 3000. Yeah.
A bunch of great stuff. He's so funny.
And I'm the permanent contestant. You're the clue-less part of it.
He's the clue-full part. Yeah.
That's exactly right. It's like 10 to 12-minute episodes of just puzzle podcasts.
And it's super fun. So they're little sprints.
Yeah. You can try to solve it while you're driving or listening to the show.
And it's only 10 minutes. And it's super fun.
Will, how long do you take playing Wordle each day, Will? Yeah. What was it take for you to get through Wordle? Pretty quick.
Pretty quick. Because you usually bust real fast, right? You just guess, guess, guess, guess.
I'm out. I sure don't.
I would stack my Wordle in timing and also success rate against yours any day. No, no, you're definitely smarter than me.
Anyway, so Clueless is coming up. It's great.
You should listen to it. It takes no longer than the average person would take to solve Wordle.
If you're super bright like Will Arnett. It's fun.
It's fun. It's fun.
It's a super fun show. It's super fun games.
And it premieres Monday, November 18th. And I'm on every episode.
And I play with family and friends. And you guys were kind enough to do the first episode.
It was a lot of fun. Yeah, I liked it a lot.
It was a lot of fun. It's all for Smartless Media, which is fun.
And that's our little pledge. Just check it out, bros.
Yeah. Yeah.
Yo's. And gals.
Hey, listen. Speaking of checking out.
Yeah. You know what I like to check out? Uh-oh.
Here he comes. Are the films of our today.
You're like, oh. Well, and I don't think that I'm alone because I read somewhere that I think that our guest's films have grossed north of $4 billion worldwide.
Wow. That's strong.
That's a very strong number. And what's even stronger about it.
I hope this person had a nice definition. Well, I wonder if they did.
What's even stronger about it is... Tracy, that's a profit participation.
...is the fact that they're so varied in the types of films they are and some of them are sort of what you would consider sort of indie-type films. Some of them are what you would consider to be sort of comedies.
Some are what you might consider to be romantic comedies. Some you might consider to be just straight-up dramas.
Some would be period pieces. Everything.
Everything. And in addition to the financial reward, our guest has also been rewarded with loads of nominations and wins for SAGs and Golden Globes and BAFTAs and Emmys.
Oh, it's a smarty. I mean, this person...
Or he? He. He's a smarty.
He's a smarty. He has been such a part of the film landscape for so long.
I know that, I imagine he's embarrassed by my intro,

but he shouldn't be because he has done everything.

He's taught us about love, actually.

He's taught us about what it's supposed to be about a boy.

He's done it all,

and now he has a new horror film called Heretic.

You guys, it's Hugh Grant, who I do not know.

Hugh Grant? The one and only Hugh Grant.

Look at this guy.

Do I take this off now?

Yes, take it off. Oh, look at this guy.
No, no, not the shirt. Not the shirt.
Not the shirt. It's a silver fox.
Guys, we got a silver fox on today. It is the one and only Hugh Grant.
Hugh Grant, welcome to Smartless. It's very nice of you to have me.
Good morning. Yeah, this is really cool.
I only met you once on the street of New York City, and I said, Hugh Grant. You said, hello.
That's it. In a dismissive...
No, you were very nice. Cold kind of way.
No, no, no. I'm not a very nice man.
Oh, that's good. We're all the same.
That's entirely untrue, I'm sure. So, did Sean yell it too loud and everyone then stopped and wanted to take a picture?

No, you were...

I don't know.

I was probably a bit hungover and grumpy.

There you go.

No, no.

Did I have a child with me?

I've got millions on that voice.

Makes me unpleasant.

Get in line.

So do I.

How many kids do you have? Well, we think it's five. But I had them much too old in life.
I started when I was 52. And now, you know.
Your first kid, you were 52. Wow.
Yeah, and now I'm 64. And the youngest is six.
And I need a long stint in a sanatorium or an abbey. I often look at the abbey that Maria lives in in The Sound of Music.
Yeah. And wish I lived there.
What about one of those old, like really old monasteries that they built at tops of mountains that are accessible by just like a very narrow path? I'm frightened of monks. Okay.
I don't mind nuns. Yeah, yeah.
Are you in Los Angeles right now? I've just arrived last night. Yeah.
I've come to bang the drum for my film. From London.
Yeah? Yeah. How is that flying this way? Is it harder coming this way than it is going the other? It's brutal both ways, I find.

I can't do it anymore. I think that's

another age thing. I woke

up hours ago, very

very hungry, and it felt like

my heart is made of Play-Doh.

Do you have Play-Doh? Yeah, we have Play-Doh.

Yeah, of course. I used to eat it.

Sean's got a doctor for you. I've got something upstairs.

Hugh, you should know this, that Sean

two, three nights ago

woke up in the middle of the night with a

heart issue, drove himself to Ced doctor for you. I've got some upstairs.
Hugh, you should know this, that Sean, two, three nights ago, woke up in the middle of the night with a heart issue, drove himself to Cedars-Sinai, didn't wake up his husband, drove himself to Cedars-Sinai. They brought the paddles out.
They put them under, they paddled them. He drove home.
An hour later, he woke up to use the bathroom again and drove himself back to Cedars and got paddled again. Yeah, and then went to dinner that night.
So you're jet-lagged by comparison. And I'm not saying this to make you feel bad.
Well, no, you are, and I... That's working.
Yeah. I feel humiliated.
But by God, you look fucking great. Yeah.
Yeah, you do. No, I don't.
You do, I'm telling you. You do.
You've managed to keep it going all the time. Do you know what I forgot to bring? Because I'm a bad packer.
Underwear. So I'm talking to you, Commando, this morning.
I feel a little bit exciting. I had a stint with that.
I went a couple years with that. Yeah, let's not go down that, Jason, because we know what happened.
No, I'm not interested in going down it again. Well, the details on it are a little sordid, let's be honest.
I used to wear boxers in college. I just didn't, I thought because I was supposed to, and I was just like, it's dumb.
I don't get boxers. It's useless.
That's a miserable experience. They don't provide any worth at all.
I like to be cupped. Yeah, exactly.
You like to be cupped. That's good.
Yeah, he likes to be cupped. And Jay, how do you go now? Do you not wear any undergarments? No, no, no.
I'm into the boxer briefs now. Okay.
It's a semi, semi, semi cup. Yeah, same.
Okay. I think that's the answer.
So Hugh, we can, listen, and feel free to say no, we can send somebody over with a variety if you'd like. No, I've already asked a concierge in a hotel to provide some.
He looked surprised. I'll go shopping.
Hugh Grant, honestly, you know, I do feel... I'm sorry to say you're one of those sort of film stars that I feel like because I've seen you in so many films i feel like oh yeah well it's hugh grant whom i know from earlier and and there is that sort of familiarity that we have through roles um and you have done so many different and now i'm i think i'm safe to say you're doing something that is completely new now you're doing this this sort of horror film, if you will, for lack of a better word, right? Oh, yeah.
I love it. No, that is correct.
We can call it horror, or we can call it psychological thriller. Yeah.
Perhaps for people who are frightened of horror films like me. We can also call it one of the last remaining viable genres for theatrical distribution.
Yes, Why is that? Explain that to me. I'll bet you it's because people like to have the scare be a shared experience because a scare at home might be a little too scary and being in a big room.
That's so true. But you would think that comedy would be the same way, right? You want the shared experience of the laugh,

but comedies have yet to come back.

I know, and I sort of brought that up actually

to our friend Jason Blum,

who makes a lot of horror type films.

Blumhouse, yeah.

Yeah, Blumhouse.

And I said that, JB.

I said, well, why don't we make a comedy?

And he said, no, there's no money in it.

Yeah, I don't get it.

Yeah.

Yeah, I don't get it either.

I understand wanting to be home alone if you're going to be crying. You don't want to cry next to a stranger.
But I do like laughing with strangers. I like being scared with strangers.
Yeah. Yeah.
Anyway. Hugh.
Hugh, comments? It's very sad. No one's sadder than me.
My local cinema just closed down after 30, I mean, I've been going there for 30 years. It's been going for 100 years.
It's just awful. I would just close in.
To me, I can't understand the instinct of someone who says, I think I'll just sit at home and stream. That seems so utterly sad.
It is nice to not have to leave the house. I mean...
I couldn't disagree with you more. My only object in life is to get out of the house.
Well, you've got those kids running around making a bunch of noise. Hang on, JB.
Hugh, I want to get into this. I'm so glad you're saying this because you're talking to these two, or two people who would, and by the way, a lot of Angelenos who are sort of in the same our age and who kind of do what we do are equally as boring as these two.
No, you're not agoraphobic. You have zero ambition and are way too comfortable in your fucking plush lives.
And you're not interested in anything other than yourselves. So, Hugh, it's entirely true.
Hugh, talk to me a little bit about getting out of the house. What is it you like to do so much? I've always regarded home as hell.
I think homes are hell. The home I grew up in.
Here's a title of a biography. Home, hell, home.
The guy who dresses me on films wants my autobiography to be called Coffee in the Custard. And I think that is better, actually.

Well, yeah, homes.

I don't get it.

That's why I don't understand why everyone wants to work from home. I cannot imagine anything more dreary or depressing.
Hugh, are you currently married? Yeah. I'm married to a terrifying giant Swede.
we're gonna launch a new a new podcast from Smartless Media called Telling It Like It Is starring Hugh Grant I could Hugh this is absolutely delightful and surprising and obviously we don't I don't know you tell us a little bit us a little bit. About this cat you're married to.

This terrifying person who's in your life. Well, actually, she's magnificent.
Yeah. As are the kids.
We know you jest. Yeah, I should point that out.
No, she's great. To my great surprise, while I was being pretty drunk for a few years in London, about 13 years ago, the bar I used to hang out at, there was this hot Swede at the other end of the bar.
And it was her. She's an athlete.
She was very nearly a pro tennis player, but she's just too angry. Anyway, we got closer and closer, and then we started breeding, and then we started in love, and now we're married.
I love that. But she's very much the man in the family.
She comes from the northern part of Sweden. I mean, Swedish men, I think, are quite masculine anyway, but when they come from the north, where everyone lives among the trees, they're really seriously masculine, and men are not supposed to talk.
If you talk, it's a bit girly. No, it's true.
Her brothers, I've never heard them say a word. For yes and no, they just suck their teeth.
They go, that's northern Swedish for yes and no. Oh, look at this.
Oh, the food's coming for you. Yeah, I got some coffee, thank God.
Thank you very much. Yeah, get that in you.
Well, yeah, the Swedes do that. If I'm wrong, they do that thing when they talk on the phone, where they go, that's right.
Yes, yes, that's it. That's a yes.
That's an agreeable breath. I've spent some time in Stockholm over the years.
I've been there a few times, and I quite like Sweden. I always say that Sweden is kind of like Canada with much better architecture.
And the people are really great, but they're also very blunt in that way that a lot of the sort of the Nordic people can be. And I always find, because every time I went there, I'd go and I'd see people, relatives or friends, and they'd say, oh, look at you, you look quite fat.
And I'm like, oh. And I'm like, well, it's great to see you too.
My, you are tired. You are very tired.
And I can tell by your face looks terrible. That's absolutely correct.
I don't allow my wife to go on any of the group chats with the schools because she offends everyone instantly with remarks exactly like that. Wait, Hugh, did you ever, speaking of the character, how you just described your wife, did you find it difficult to give up control as a man when you met her? Before you met her before you met her, were you like more in control of, or did you believe you were in control of more? And then when you met her, you're like, yeah, I guess I could hand this off to her.
This is fine. I seem to be quite happy in my pussy role.
I just, I just can't believe she likes me. I mean, You know, I'm a bit chatty compared to Swedish men.

Sure.

And I, you know, she likes me. I mean, you know, I'm a bit chatty compared

to Swedish men.

And I, you know, she catches

me watching The Sound of Music in the afternoons.

I love it. We get along great.

God, I love the visual.

She also has a long list of things

that she says

are unshaggable in a man.

And they're really tough, like

having tea instead of coffee,

driving an electric car.

So far, check, check for me.

Yeah, exactly.

I wish I could remember the other ones.

They're good.

So those are things that deem you ineligible for her pleasure.

Yeah, that's correct.

So you're a coffee man, full combustion engine. So all three children are adopted.
So what is she seeing you, man? I know. It's a mystery.
And she was married before to a very butch ski champion instructor or something. And now There was an ugly moment when I was filming this film, Heretic, in Canada.
When I went for a walk one day, we were filming in Vancouver, I went for a walk on Whistler Mountain nearby. Beautiful.
And I told my wife on the phone and there was a bit of a silence and then it turned out that her ex-husband lives on Whistler Mountain. No way.
I'm not very good in nature. And I did get into slight difficulties that day.
And I had this nightmare scenario in which her ex-husband rescues me. Carries me down the mountain over his shoulder.
That would have been a low point. He rescues you because he lives in the trees.
Because he's living close to the bone on the land. He's sort of hauling logs through waist-deep snow.
Yeah, well, that's him. And we will be right back.
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Hey guys, everybody should have a support system, right? Who's your support system? My support system, as you well know, talk about it all the time, is Scot And of course my two besties, Will and Jason, whenever I have a problem, an issue, I talk to them about it. And if they're not available, I will talk to a therapist and I've been going to therapy for a long time and it's always great.
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That's betterhelp, H-E-L-P.com slash smartless. And now back to the show.
Hugh, let's go way back. Let's go way back to...
So, I think for a lot of people,

certainly in this country and in Canada as well,

I'm going to speak to my fellow Canadians,

we sort of came to know you, I think,

through Four Weddings and a Funeral was the thing where everybody went, oh, this guy is amazing.

But truth be told, it wasn't your first film.

You'd made quite a few films before, yeah?

I had a career before Four Weddings, but it was a bit lame. I specialized in really low-quality miniseries.
Like Judith Kranz's Till We Meet Again. I was always, for some reason in these miniseries, I was always a champagne baron, an evil champagne baron.
I did hundreds of those parts. And I used to sell the family reserves of the best champagne to the Nazis and then get horse whipped out of the house by Michael York.
Horse whipped out of the house.

Yes. Another alternate title

for the biography.

Having raped my half-sister,

Courtney Cox.

Oh, my God.

Yes.

Jesus Christ.

This has taken a turn

for the better.

And keep going.

I'd love to see this.

Oh, there was another one

where I was,

you know, there's a brand of champagne called Charles Aidsic? Anyway, I was him. What do you mean? Well, I played him.
I played him. It was partly sponsored by the champagne makers themselves.
It was not a high point in television history, I don't think. Okay.
And I made the mistake of doing a French accent. I didn't have great lines.
I remember I had to say things like, you must listen to the champagne. There is laughter in the bubbles.
You know, it was lines like that. Oh, God.
How long have you been a professional actor, earning a paycheck? Yeah, well, 40 years. Yeah.
Wow, isn't that amazing? And before you were earning a paycheck, you were learning, I'm guessing. Was there much training? No, you can tell.
How early did the bug bite you? You can tell. Maybe it was not great training.
No, you're fine, actually. I never trained.
The whole thing started by mistake. I had left university.
I was heading off to do another degree in a different subject, which I didn't really want to do that much. Which is what? Well, I was highly pretentious.
I'd just done a degree in literature. Thank you.
I was off to do a history of art master's. And anyway, in the summer when that was about to happen, someone said, come and watch this amateur film that I had played a small part in while I was a student at Oxford.
And I thought, I might as well. I was showing BAFTA in Piccadilly that night, and I went there on my bicycle and I watched it.
It was not a good film. I was not good in it.
But at that time in England, it was very much the vogue for actors to be hoity-toity posh. It was the time of Chariots of Fire and Brideshead revisited and things like that.
So agents said to me, would you like to be hoity-toity posh. It was the time of Chariots of Fire and Brideshead Revisited and things like that.

So agents said to me, would you like to be an actor?

We'd like to represent you.

And I said, no, thank you very much.

And went back to prepare for a world in the history of art.

And then I suddenly thought, actually, I've got no money.

So maybe I should do that for a year.

And then I'll go and do my other degree. So I rang them back.
I said, yeah, look, I'll do this for a bit. And I got jobs, but I was so bad.
I thought, I can't leave it at that. I'll do one more and try and be better.
And that has gone on for 40 years. Isn't that interesting? Yeah,'re English, like we all revere, and you just assume that you've had all this training as most...
Well, I was going to say, yeah, and there are so many... Of course, there are so many English actors who work over here and who, as Englishmen or pose as Americans, but there is always that thing about, you know, having gone to drama school, having gone to, you know, RADA or whatever.
And I wonder if growing up in that environment, now, of course, you were coming out of Oxford, but growing up and a lot of your peers who were coming out of these schools, was there kind of a... I don't know.

Was there a thing about that?

Was that something that those people... I'm not asking you to speak ill of your friends,

but was there kind of a thing about that?

Were they lorded that over?

Were they ones who'd been to drama school?

Yeah.

Well, when I did this acting,

I was nervous of them

because I thought they must know stuff I don't know. And I did read books about, you know, the voice and the body.
And I did tragic drills in the park by myself. But, no, really awful.
Awful. I did one where you said you must run backwards with your arms spread out, shouting, ha, from your diaphragm.
And I was in the theatre up in Nottingham in north of England at the time, and I went to the local park and I did these things. And then I remember looking over at some local kids who were saying, look, he's doing it again.
What a wanker. There he goes again.
Yeah. In many ways.
They were right. Do you remember what the big switch and change was when you went back to do it again and do it better and not be quite as bad an actor as you say you were? Do you remember, did you do anything on purpose that pushed you more towards the higher quality performance? Was there one thing? Well, you all know this, it's only about parts.
It's just about how good the part is, really. And in the end, the script for Weddings and a Funeral came across my desk, and I auditioned, and they really didn't want me.
The guy who wrote it, Richard Curtis, really didn't want me. He thought I was all wrong.
But the man who directed it did, and that seemed to help. Although I must say, I never really felt I got that part.
You know, you get that feeling, don't you, when you think, I'm being rather good. I'm absolutely in character here.
I never felt that with that guy.

How do you mean?

I couldn't hear him.

I have to hear them, and I couldn't hear him.

Well, I couldn't anyway off the page.

It helped after I finally met Richard Curtis, who wrote it,

who is that guy.

And so in some ways, I'm just doing an imitation of him in that film.

Do you ever sit back? Because, I mean, we've all seen so much of your work. Do you absorb how, do you get a moment of how, being proud of yourself and, like, taking it all in and being like, I mean, you don't seem the type, but, like, my wish for you is that you accept it, you know, accept all the great work you've done.
Well, it's nice of you. I've got better.
And that is a mystery. Again, I think it's partly parts.
When I got too old and ugly to do romantic comedies and started being offered these weirdo parts, it suited me better. Now you're killing people running down the street.
And, you know, I have another weird, I have two theories about it. One is I learned really much too late in my career that you have to mean it, that you have to think it.
There's a whole other script behind the script which is all about thoughts and feelings. And prior to that, I'd always just thought, I just need to land this funny line, right timing.
And that's not the way to be good. So meaning it was one thing.
But the other thing was, I have a weird theory that it was having children. I think I was a dried up, middle-aged, golf-addicted Englishman.
Then I had children. And suddenly I had heart.
And I think I had more layers or something. Wait a second.
Now you're speaking our language. Jason and I, we're in two hours.
We're teeing off. And if you ever are in town and you want to play with us, Hugh, please do.
You just said, can I come? I just asked. Okay.
No, I can't today. You'll be glad to do it.
We need a fourth tomorrow. We need a fourth if you can play tomorrow.
So, Hugh, talk a little bit about, you know, when you say jokingly, you said, you know, too old, too ugly to do the rom-com parts anymore. But, you know, talk a bit about sort of the half-serious part of that where, you know, your looks still are incredible, but that was a large part of what we knew and loved about you was this incredibly handsome dashing man, uh, providing the lead in all of these films, uh, which I'd like to still see you do, um, considering your incredible looks maintaining here.
But like, was that something that got in your way? Um, like some sort of, you know, famously beautiful actresses of our time

have often mentioned that, you know,

they weren't taken seriously because they were so gorgeous.

I mean, you know, was that ever something that you thought,

well, you know, I want to be taken seriously as an actor,

but people are hiring me for my looks.

Was that ever something that was a problem?

Well, I entirely lost faith that I could do anything else. I believed my critics, really.
But I see now maybe I was wrong, because at the very beginning, if I had any talent, it was for doing strange characters and silly voices and things, outlandish things that were nothing like me. And I had this comedy group that was actually quite successful, the London and Edinburgh sort of fringe circuit, which was all character stuff, you know, silly characters.
What kind of year was it? Sorry to interrupt. That would be mid-80s.
Okay. And we used to perform in pubs with people like Mike Myers.
He was next on the bill. Yeah.
And that was fun. And actually, just after I made Four Weddings, I shot another film with the same director before Four Weddings was actually released, which was, you know, I was a nicotine-stained, predatory, evil, twisted, unpleasant theatre director.
And I was pretty good. And I wish that at least I'd kept that other strand of my career going through all those years and years of rom-coms.
Not that I, I hasten to add, not that I hate the romantic comedies, I'm proud of them. It's nice to have made films that actually entertain people and they're much harder than people think and in some cases much better, I think, than the sneerers think.
My wife's good on this. She was watching, I think, Love Actually the other day.
Because we like to watch one of my films every night. I make all the children watch them.
If they don't watch them, they don't get fed. And she said, quite correctly, she said, what's good about this film is that it's about pain.
And the good romantic comedies I did were really about pain. It's about humor dealing with pain.
The pain of being in unrequited love, etc. And so do you feel that perhaps but for the massive success of the more sort of commercial efforts that you made, the rom-com stuff, that you would have maybe had a better chance at being received as a thespian.
Sometimes our great directors get stuck in that too. They're incredibly sophisticated, but then they direct some big popcorn success, and now they're that director.
Where they're shackled by financial success, right? Yeah, exactly. Greed plays a big part in this.
Yeah. Greed and laziness.
And those two have played a huge part in my career. Well, but you're being falsely modest here, but do you think that, would you have made different decisions earlier on to balance out more of the output, like chosen some weird characters alongside the others? Yes, yes, yes.
Well, I still had some confidence coming off this other weird film I did before Four Weddings. And then another one called Restoration, which was not a very successful film with Robert Downey, but I played a kind of freakish cameo in that, and I was pretty good, I thought.
And I should have at least kept that going. Well, are you looking forward to now, this stage of, you know, maybe like saying, well, check out what's been under this all this time and here comes some more interesting parts from that.
Yeah. Well, I suppose that's what I've been doing for the last seven or eight years.
Yeah, I was going to say that. It seems like you've kind of been on that track a little bit.
And you've been sort of mixing it up. Yeah, I have mixed it up.
Yeah, I'm so late to the party, but The Undoing is a perfect example. You were so great in that with Nicole Kidman.
And I loved that series, because I'm a big fan of thrillers and stuff like that. So that was incredible.
I loved that series. Oh, that's nice of you.
Yeah, not easy. But very well directed, that thing.
Very well. Susanna Beer, Danish.
You know, that whole Scandi Noir thing. She made that what it was, I think.
Really cool. I think so.
Yeah. Yeah.
I mean, I was going to say, I don't want to spoil it, but it's ancient history now. To be that charming guy, the ideal husband, he's a cancer doctor for kids, loving to his child, loving to his wife, marvelous.
Then it turns out he's an absolute savage psychopath. You know, it's funny, Hugh, you seem to have this very sort of, I've got to say, kind of refreshing and very I don don't even know what to say sort of honest uh uh this sort of sort of self-appraisal that you're doing and maybe it's because and i and i will say i do share with you as now that i'm north of 50 i'm 54 i i spend a lot of time i don't take as many things as seriously as i used to when i was a young man, certainly when I was a young actor.
Certainly my career, I didn't have the career that you did in film. In fact, I always joked that if it wasn't for bad films, I wouldn't have made one.
But you seem to have this very sort of healthy, self-deprecating thing. And it's not even self-deprecating.
I think it's quite, it's obviously very funny, but it's also, I wonder how much of it for you is cathartic to just kind of let it all go and not be serious about it. Is that a conscious decision? I quite like it and you're encouraging me to do it more about myself.
Well, I don't know. I mean, I feel actors can sometimes get a little pious or reverent about what they're doing.
And I've never been able to go down that alley. I do in the end think we're in the entertainment business.
And if you're not entertaining people... What are you doing? What are you doing? It's a bit masturbatory.
I agree. Sean, you want to speak to that? Yeah, thank you.
No, I totally agree. I always thought that if you, exactly what you just said, there's a lane to pick where you make great things that speak to your heart and that are true for you and that you want to make and that's called art and in some form it's all art but if nobody's watching you make that art, it's like if a tree falls in the forest, you know, like then what are you doing? I know, but that's not right either.
Right. I take back everything I just said.
Okay. Because if you don't have the people trying new stuff No No, I know.
It's a balancing act. It's a balancing act.
And the problem is, I think under the umbrella of art comes an awful lot of pretentious dross that deserves to die in the forest. That's true.
But also some absolute gems and artistry that actually genuinely gets me going. on the plane last night I watched Zone of Interest and you you can

you can and artistry that actually genuinely gets me going. On the plane last night, I watched Zone of Interest, and you cannot get more incredible filmmaking in every aspect than that film.
It's incredible. And that clearly is not made for what you might call entertainment or money, but it's incredible.
Sean and Scotty, you guys don't, because it's not part of the MCU, as we'd call it, right? The Marvel Cinematic Universe that we so adore. Sean and his husband can often be found with sort of children's lightsabers battling on the front lawn.
Spock ears on. I like to call it the front lines, but yeah.
No, we're big sci-fi fans. But I know what you mean.
I think the goal is then, you know, if you're making the thing something like Zone of Interest and it does find an audience, as it has, I believe, that's the real win is when you're making... Well, because it's illuminating.
It's illuminating, right? I mean, not only is it great art, there's also a message, but it's illuminating and exposing people to art sometimes. Jason, as you say, making the medicine go down earlier.
I hate even calling it medicine because it is... But also getting into conversations about what is art and what is not art is a very slippery slope into douchebaggery.
I agree. Right, right, right.

For sure, for sure.

And I think what sometimes has got lost,

or perhaps has got lost,

is that it was possible

to make big, successful box office films

that were smart.

I used to have a deal with Castle Rock Pictures,

and Rob Reiner, who was the kind of boss of that,

always said there are two $200 million movies in this country. One of them's moronic, and the other is very bright, and you can make big, successful films that are intelligent, smart, you know, groundbreaking, and he did.
Lots of them, you know, and I think it's sad that that's got lost, that that doesn't seem to exist so much anymore. Or maybe it's moved over to Netflix or something.
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Now, what about junkets? Now, like the older you get, for my sister Tracy, who doesn't, junket is a press tour for any project you're working on. I bet you that's what Hugh's in town for.
Hugh's in town to answer a bunch of questions about this new movie coming out, and it's part of sort of, yeah, you know, bang the drum, light your hair on fire, and say it's great. Not only that, let's discuss the worst part, which is the back-to-back junket days when you sit in a room and then they trot.
He's about to go downstairs and start that. And they say, okay, so today it's 35 and tomorrow it's 41 in a row.
And I know you're listening at home and you're saying, hey, fuck you, I stare at a wall all day and then I drive home. But this is equally as mind-numbing, I assure you.
Yeah. Yeah, to that point, my question is just like what we were talking about before, the older you get, you kind of have, don't you have the power to say, guys, I'm going to do like three today and that's it? Or I don't know.
Yes, you do, I suppose. But you feel a bit of an asshole if you do that.
Yeah, yeah come to love the filmmakers, don't you? Everyone's put themselves out there, and it's a terrifying moment when you're about to present something to the public and just walk away and say, I'm too grand to talk to the media, is a bit wanky. Yeah, yeah, for sure.
But what happens in the scenario where you've seen the film and you're like, oh boy.

Oh, this did not come together.

This did not work.

Yet you still have to go out and champion it.

Is that difficult?

Well, traditionally at that point I like to get arrested.

And then...

Brilliant.

Then you're kind of out of the loop.

Very smart playing.

You're N.A.

Tech not avail L.A. But this one, I imagine this one you're excited to talk about.
You're in one of those really cool, new, I'd love this new, I guess it's not a new genre, but it's a tilt on the genre of horror films where they've really over the last, what,, five or ten years, become much more cinematic. Like, these are really, really well-made films.
They're beautiful, and they're challenging. And I would imagine this is one of those.
Did you have a great time doing it? Are you happy with the end product? I am very happy with the end product, and you're right. Well, part of the reason I did it was because it was A24, and it's not often in life that you get something as surprising and uplifting as what they've done for cinema with just sheer balls and courage and good taste creating film after film that's fresh and new and often utterly fucking terrifying.
I'm still getting over Midsommar. You ever seen that film? No, I want to see that.
I haven't seen it yet. Oh my God.
Well, it's kind of like what you said, what Rob Reiner said. You know, like, why can't you have something that is artistically sound, but also so enjoyable and so satisfying and delivers so thoroughly that it makes a whole lot of money, sells a bunch of popcorn at the same time.
And that's the dream scenario, exactly. That's the bullseye.
Heretic has got that? Well, it's definitely very smart. I mean, it's fascinating.
I'm a character who makes a lot of quite long speeches in it about religion. And they were genuinely fascinating to me.
These two weirdos who wrote and directed it, Scott and Brian, who also wrote, for instance, A Quiet Place. They're interesting guys.
They did years of research to come up with the arguments I make in this film, and I think they are really quite startling and fascinating. So, yeah, I enjoyed all that part of it.
And it's filmy. I am obsessed with films being filmy and not just like a big format TV.
So it's got incredible production design, incredible photography, and it's daring because traditionally, as you know, films tend to try and keep their dialogue quite pithy and short. This is very dialogue heavy.
How are you at learning your lines? Well, worse and worse. You know, the older I get, the more I drink.
But I now start weeks and weeks early. Do you? I go for walks every day, going through every single line over and over again.
Because I think they, I have a theory that they're like dance steps. And the more you repeat your dance steps, the more you can't forget them on the day.
And then on the day you can have other thoughts and other feelings. Do what actors are supposed to do.
Because it's in your skin, yeah. It's in your skin.
And I hate seeing in my eyes or any other actor's eyes, I think he's just looking for his next line there. Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Yeah, yeah. Do you record? Sorry, go ahead, Sean.
As I said, Jason has the opposite. He can look at something and memorize it in five seconds.
He's very good at memorizing. I don't understand it.
I don't understand it. It's not that great, but it's sort of a self-preservation thing.
I wish I could do what you do, Hugh, but I find the more I do that, the more I sort of nail in a way I'm going to do that line, the more and more I talk about it and rehearse it, then I'm less flexible on the day when I see what the other actor is doing and I actually have to change a little bit. Yes, yes.
It's harder for me if I'm really nailed down with the lines. You're right.
I worked in the theater once with a very good director who used to say, don't nest. You're nesting your lines in rehearsal.
And that was brilliant. You don't want to nest.
But at the same time, I've worked with actors, as I say, where they're just struggling for their lines the whole time. That's all that's going on in their eyes.
We used to, sort of 20 years ago, when Jason and I were doing a television show called Arrested Development, and we used to constantly be getting rewrites at the last second. And so we'd have our sides with us on set.
We'd be looking at them and we'd blah, blah, blah, and just trying to jam it in, jam it in. They'd be like rolling.
Okay, rolling. Here we go, guys.
Everybody's up in front of them. We're just looking, looking, looking.
And one of the sets was this living room of this house. And we jam our sides between the cushions.
So years later, do you remember this, Jay? Years later, we went and we did a few more seasons of the show for Netflix, like whatever it was, eight, ten years later. And they had all the old sets.
They preserved them somewhere out in, I don't know, in the desert where they keep sets of old television shows. And they brought the original stuff.
And we sit, we go to rehearse the first day. We're sitting on the couch.
And I reach, I think, there's no chance. I reach between the cushions.
And there are all these sides that had been jammed in there years earlier from the last second jamming them in. Isn't that funny? Hey, well, Hugh, you sound like you're a big film fan as far as the way things are shot and designed and whatnot.
With all your set experience, have you ever flirted with directing? Is that an interest to you? It is of interest.

There's lots of it which is of interest.

The bit that would get me down is... Is the work.

A year or two years on the same story.

I've produced films in the past,

and by the end of a year and a half,

you just think, I don't care anymore.

Just get it out.

When you're in a Foley session about which

footsteps for the postman coming up the stairs.

Yeah.

But Jason, you love that

kind of intricacy stuff.

Well, he loves the postman approaching.

I do. Actually, yeah, we're

coming up with the sound of

what is the sound

of a body hitting the ground? I did that

on Ozark once. It was from 40 stories

and now we've got this other one and this new one Thank you. coming up with the sound of what is the sound of a body hitting the ground?

I did that on Ozark once.

It was from 40 stories.

And now we've got this other one and this new one where it's just three stories.

And it's going to be a different sound.

Yeah, it's a lot softer.

And I'm going to try to find that.

Yeah, exactly.

How did you get the 40-story one?

Did you actually throw someone out?

No, that was something that we thought about doing, actually,

like throwing a big bag of something out. But yeah, anyway, it was just louder than the three-story one.
But I do anticipate that process becoming a bit tiresome. At some point, I'm going to gas, and I'm going to be like, yeah, you know what, it's just the acting part for a while now.
You think so? Perhaps. It's also very, very hard to see the story, I find, after a year or a year and a half.
To lose your objectivity. Yeah, to produce one of those films.
We used to call the cleaning lady in the editing room and just say, come and watch this film. And then suddenly you could see it.
You see it through someone else's eyes, but I couldn't see what other people... What about writing, Hugh? Have you done any writing or any film writing, any other kind of writing? Well, increasingly, I ginger up my dialogue.
Not on every film, but on some of them, a lot. A lot.
It may be up to 80% is scribbled by me. Oh, really? Yeah.
There's nothing wrong with that. And then how do you navigate that tricky process of sort of ask? Well, yeah, and like you've got to kind of pitch that to the director and or the writer or the other actors, and then what if they say yeah, no, I like it the other way, and then you're like, yeah, but I'm the one talking and I don't want to sound like an idiot, so here's the better dialogue.
I agree. A little window.
I'm a master of that particular labyrinth, though. And I also am fully aware that nine times out of ten, when an actor says, I've got some ideas, it's going to be shit.
Yeah, yeah. You don't want to hear it.
And then you dread it. And then, you know, sometimes the director will have to say, now let's do one of yours, which you know is going to end up on the cutting room floor, just to keep him happy.
I imagine, I don't know you, but I imagine that diplomacy is one of your strong suits. You're a flat-out genius at that.
Yeah, that comes across. It would help you with directing.
Yeah, it would actually help you with directing, because that's all it is, isn't it? I mean, it's a lot of it.

Hugh, when you come to LA,

what are the things you look forward to doing?

Or as you say, when you just, quote, get out of the house,

what are the things you look forward to?

Well, I was a golf addict for 12 years.

So I used to get the guys together and go and golf.

In the very old days,

in the Judith Krantz, Till We Meet Again days, I used to go to Rancho Park. I bet you never played there.
Of course we have. Oh, yeah.
Oh, yeah. They used to announce your name through a loudspeaker.
They still do. They still do.
And you team up with three guys you never met. Yeah.
More rounds played on that golf course than anywhere in the country. And I'll tell you what, if you like a seven-hour round, Rancho is your place.
So you've kicked, have you kicked the habit? Having kids runs counter to it. Yeah, that killed everything.
And also, I got the shanks. Did you? Yeah, I got the shanks, or the Tom Hanks, as we call them in rhyming slang, worse than anybody's ever had them.
What are the shanks? That's when the ball goes far right instead of straight.

It's almost impossible to achieve if you try to do it,

but it's where the head of the club meets the shaft of the club.

Oh, yeah.

And so the ball goes humiliatingly.

The hosel.

You know, there's a very, quite famously,

Ian Baker Finch, who won the Open,

and is now a broadcaster here in America,

a golf broadcaster.

And he's, by the way, a very good golf broadcaster. And he still plays.
We actually saw him last year playing. I mean, not professionally.
He doesn't play professionally because he won the Open. He was sort of at the top of the game, and he got the shakes.
Yeah. And he couldn't hit a fairway, and he couldn't.
Shanks are nothing. Yeah.
Well done. I once lost a ball chipping from off the green on live television.
I was in a big pro-am in Scotland. And all I had was the tiniest chip up onto this green, one of those courses in Scotland.
Shanked it, went into one of those little streams, and was taken out to sea lost.

That's funny.

That's probably when I gave up gold.

Jason, one time at a pro-am at Pebble Beach,

two, three years ago,

playing a couple of groups ahead of me,

was in a bunker on the third hole and he thinned one,

he hit it thin out of the bunker

and it went straight into the windshield of a car. Oh, that's magnificent.
And I just dove in the bunker and just got outside. He ducked, walked away, and went to the next hole.
That's shameful. I know.
Would you like to know my most shameful moment like that? Please. Yeah.
Took my dad and my brother to play golf in northern France. And there was one course we wanted to play on.
It wasn't open, but they said, because we got our big tournament today. But we will open it especially for you, Mr.
Grant, Monsieur Grant. In fact, come early.
We'll cook you a special breakfast and we'll take you to the first tee. So long as you get off before the tournament, everything's fine.
So we turn up, they cook us a lovely breakfast, they drive us to the first tee. Round about the third hole, I'm already in a rage.
I had terrible golf rage. I've had, I got the shanks with some chip and threw my wedge as far as I could over a kind of hill by the side of the third, into the bushes, thought, right, I never want to see that funky thing again.
Then realized over that hill was not the bushes, but was, in fact, the first green. And I go over the top of the hill, and there is my wedge embedded like a tomahawk in the middle of the green, right next to the hole, and the competition has now started

with their best players coming up the green

and the guy who'd cooked us breakfast

sitting in a buggy right by the green.

No! No!

Hello there.

Yeah.

Bonjour.

Bonjour.

Some crazy man stole my wedge and threw it over this hill.

I'm so glad I found it.

Yeah.

That's funny.

Oh, no.

Did you ever get to be a single digit?

I did.

I got to 6.7.

Thank you. threw it over this hill.
I'm so glad I found it. Yeah.
That's funny. Oh, no.
Did you ever get to be a single digit? I did. I got to 6.7 at my zenith.
Nice. Yeah, but you're lower than that.
I can tell from your face. No, no, no, no.
No, no, not at all. I can't play to that at all.
Hugh, are you with any of your family, your kids, your wife? Did they travel with you or are you solo? No, thank God. Yeah, my wife is coming out tomorrow.
Oh, that's fun. Will you guys go out to eat? Will you guys go out to like concerts? Yeah, no, not concerts.
We'll go out for Scandi drinking dinners. And I still have friends here, remarkably, especially my old Castle Rock friends.
I'll bet. Doing golf with them.
Oh, yeah? Oh, good. Last thing I want to ask you, Hugh, and then we're going to let you go.
I know you're busy and you're exhausted and this is a drag, but where do you see the next five, because you're making all these changes and doing all these, if you had it your way, what are the next five years for you, Brent? Well, the fantasy, which is the same fantasy I've had for 40 years, is that I finally knock it on the head and write my novel, or possibly a wonderful script, but I can't seem to get over that hurdle. I sit down and I'm terrified of failure.
But I have pages and pages and pages of ideas and notes. And that would be really nice, because also I think right in the last few years it's become less enjoyable to be recognizable in the street.
Well, it's just harder now. I find it harder.
With the camera, because everybody's got a camera. The camera thing is tough, particularly with children.
Yeah. So it would be nice to gently disappear.
I would be first in line to read your book, and I imagine it would be quite good. And I would be second in line to listen to it.
Yeah, audio version. You can do the audio book.
Sean and Jason will listen to it. But please do.
Please do write that book. I think it would, I imagine you'd have a lot to say.
You've been very nice to me. Thank you.
Yeah, well, I'm a huge fan. Massive fan, man.
Massive fan for a long time. Well, I looked at your three names and thought I'm frightened of all three of you because they're all brilliant.
No, no, no. You're very sweet.
Yeah. And then I Googled this podcast because I don't know much about podcasts.
Sure. It's gigantic.
You're the richest people I've ever met. I mean.
No, there's plenty more. Yeah, there's plenty more.
Do you do concerts? You know a tour. We do live shows.
We did a tour. Really? Yeah, yeah, yeah.
And we went to, we went everywhere. Actually, we were going to come to London this time last year.
Yeah, we may end up doing a European version of it one of these days. But yeah, we love going out there on the road.
If we come to London, would you agree now, and we won't hold you to it, to jump on stage and say hello if we do a show in London? Yes, I'd do that, yes. We'll play golf at Sunningdale.
Oh, that'd be great. Oh, Sunningdale, yes.
Oh, that would be great. Jason and I had said, we had talked about the London trip, the tour, and we said, well, we're going to have two dates in London, and then we'll bring our clubs, and then we'll also do a date in Dublin, so we'll play in Ireland as well.
We had planned it all. Yeah.
I played in, my golf story, which I've told a long, long time ago here, really fast, I played in Dublin with my brother, Kevin, and this is a true, true story. I hit it, I don't know, what's shanked again? Yeah, it just goes bad.
Yeah, goes bad. Yeah.
So I hit it. I shanked.
And I hit it really hard. It hit a tree, bounced off, and smack, hit me in the neck.
My own ball hit me in my own neck. I swear to God.
Jesus Christ. It was horrible.
It was the universe saying, get the fuck out of here. Yeah.
And we didn't have, yeah, exactly, and I did. We didn't have a little,

what is it called?

Cart.

We just had to walk everywhere.

I was like, God,

why is this enjoyable? We never play with that cart.

We never walk.

75 mile walk.

I don't know.

Yeah.

It's a nice walk.

It's a nice walk.

It's a walk in a garden

and you get to play a game

at the same time.

Yeah, for sure.

Hugh, thank you so much.

Hugh Grant,

continued success, man.

I hope you get to do

exactly what you want to do.

You deserve it. And we deserve to hear about it.
And thank you for your time and get some rest. Thank you, sir.
It was nice to meet you all. Thank you.
It was a pleasure to meet you. And I can't wait for Heretic.
Yeah, thanks. Thanks so much.
Nice to meet you. All right.
Good luck with the film. Thanks, Hugh.
See you, bud. All right.
Bye, pal. See you, guys.
Bye. Wow, is he funny.
I love how dry and candid and, you know, honest. Me too.
Honest. Refreshing.
Reminds me, what's that Brian Cox quote? I'm too old, too rich, and too famous to give a fuck. Isn't that what he said? Yeah.
Something like that. It was very, very refreshing.
I've always been a fan of his. Never met him.
Never really heard or seen an extended interview with him. So that was really really nice yeah yeah yeah me neither i yeah it's one of those i don't feel like i know a lot about him but i i love his his career trajectory too like um yeah and he's probably made he's made like a hundred movies too yeah yeah he's made so many movies and he's made and he's made kids movies didn't, I'm going to look, God, I should have looked this up.
I mean, terrible. He made that, the film, that was Paddington, right? Yeah.
Paddington was a great movie. Great.
Really, really well done. Great fucking movie.
That was a long time ago. Gosh, I wonder like, you know, back.
Bridget Jones. By the way, Bridget Jones.
All the Bridget Jones films. Fucking Notting Hill.
He made all those movies with Richard Curtis that Richard Curtis wrote. Talking about the fact that Richard Curtis did not want him for four weddings, who had written it.
And then they went on to work together and have like a wonderful working relationship. Yeah.
And I wanted to get into that, but he was being too self-deprecating and funny about his life to interrupt him. Yeah, but I've always been a fan of thrillers and stuff like that.
And he's got, what's it called? Heretic? Oh, my God. Heretic? Yeah, I can't wait to get a ticket for that.
Or not get a ticket, but buy a ticket. It's so, honestly, Sean.
Buy. These are the worst.
Buy. Here's the thing.
Here's the thing, Sean. Bye.
No, it's too lazy. Just hang up on him, Sean.
It's not clever. It's just lazy.
Fucking bye! Bye! Smart. Less.
Smart. Less.
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