After making a floppy-haired splash in 1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral, Hugh Grant became a staple of romantic comedies for decades, charming audiences in films including Notting Hill, About a Boy, and Love Actually. Audiences appear to have been the only ones charmed, however. The British actor suggests that, in real life, he fails to live up to expectations so thoroughly that many of his leading ladies have walked away from the set hating him. Read on to learn why he says About a Boy co-star Rachel Weisz "despises" him and which other colleagues may feel the same.
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He said the admiration he had for Weisz wasn't mutual.
Grant opened up about what he described as his repelling ways during a 2016 visit to The Graham Norton Show with his Florence Foster Jenkins co-star Meryl Streep.
The host brought up a 2009 Elle interview in which Grant was asked to briefly speak about his leading ladies. Reading from its text, Norton noted that the star only had largely positive things to say about Emma Thompson (“Clever, funny, mad as a chair.”), who he worked with in Sense and Sensibility, and Renée Zellweger (“Delightful. Also far from sane. Very good kisser.”), with whom he appeared with in Bridget Jones’s Diary.
Things took a turn for the awkward when the host got to Weisz, Grant's co-star in 2002's About a Boy. According to the Wonka star, the actor could best be described with four words: “Clever. Beautiful. Despises me.”
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He's not on speaking terms with some of his other co-stars.
Universal PicturesPer Grant, Weisz isn’t the only former rom-com partner who he says dislikes him. In a 2015 appearance on Watch What Happens Live, he shared that he and his Notting Hill love interest Julia Roberts were no longer in touch. After joking about the “echo” he experienced during their kissing scenes, he suggested that this was because he “probably made too many jokes about the size of her mouth,” according to Hit Network, adding, “She might hate me by now."
On The Graham Norton Show, the host also referenced Grant’s 2009 Elle comments about his on-creen wife in 1995’s Nine Months, Julianne Moore: “Brilliant actress. Loathes me.” Adding to the list, he said his Music and Lyrics (2007) co-star Drew Barrymore felt similarly: “Made her cry. Stunning film-star face. Hates me.”
He admitted he may have overstated Weisz's feelings.
Pascal Le Segretain/Getty ImagesIn response to Norton, the actor confirmed, “Julianne definitely hates me.” However, he was less sure about his About a Boy co-star, who—for the record—has never said anything negative about Grant publicly.
“Rachel Weisz, I think we got on fine," the now-63-year-old actor explained. "I don’t know why I said that. Maybe I was going for a comedy triple.”
As for Barrymore, Grant said he brought her to tears during their time filming because “she made the mistake of giving [him] notes,” adding, “How would you take that, when you’re acting with someone?” (Streep quickly quipped, “I took them very well, didn’t I?”)
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Barrymore defended him.
Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic, Inc for Variety MagazineCould it be that Grant is just a misunderstood grump with an exceptionally dry and self-deprecating British sense of humor? After all, when Elle asked him to recount the best acting advice he had received from directors, he offered: “Be funnier,” and “[D]o it how I f***ing showed you, you [expletive]."
At least one of the co-stars Grant claimed dislikes him thinks he's just misunderstood.
After the Operation Fortune star went viral for a 2023 Oscars red carpet interview in which he gave a series of awkwardly brief answers to interviewer Ashley Graham, Barrymore came to her one-time co-star’s defense.
“People are like, ‘He’s such a curmudgeon,'” she commented on an episode of her talk show, according to The Independent. “‘And [Graham]’s so thrown.’ I’m like, ‘No, that is Hugh Grant.’” She added: “The person that Ashley Graham met on that carpet was the real Hugh.”
This made him no less lovable to the 50 First Dates star. “You think you’re getting this charming movie star, and what you really get is grumpy Hugh,” she continued. “And then you fall in love with grumpy Hugh.”
