Hugh Grant says it was Cloud Atlas that made him want to make movies again

In the trough of the wave at the end of the 2000s, the star of Notting Hill thanks the Wachowskis, who allowed him to rediscover “the taste for acting”.

Although he achieved huge success in the 1990s with his romantic comedies, Four weddings, one funeral Or Love at first sight in Notting Hill, Hugh Grant also accumulated flops in the middle of the following decade. If Love Actually And Bridget Jones 2 found their audience in 2003 and 2004, he then made only films that went unnoticed, such as Travaux, on sais quand ça commence… (2005), American Dreams (2006, which nevertheless marked his reunion with Paul Weitz, the director of the pretty For a boyin 2002), The Comeback (2007) and Where did the Morgans go? (2009). To kick off the 2010s, Hugh Grant appeared as himself in I'm Still Hereby Casey Affleck, and then he signed on for multiple roles in Cloud Atlasby Lana and Lilly Wachowski.

A very ambitious work, multiplying the characters, the settings and the eras, which allowed him to embody no less than six (anti)heroes: a reverend, a hotel manager, a tribal chief, a supervisor… If it too was a flop, it still had some good things for the actor's personal career, he says today.

Ana Wachowski: “The idea of ​​Cloud Atlas is to approach altered states of consciousness”

“I was completely boycotted, left out at the time, says Hugh Grant in Vanity Fair. The Wachowskis offered me these small roles in Cloud Atlasand to be honest, I think it was more a choice of their international distributors, who must have said to them: 'We need actors who are recognizable everywhere, cast someone who is known.' They will deny it, of course, but I am sure they said to themselves: 'Oh, we don't really want Hugh Grant, but we can give him some small roles.' I think that's what happened.”

He goes on to explain how these “small roles” made him want to act again:

“I remember thinking: 'Oh cool, I used to really like playing these little characters.' I actually really enjoyed acting. I started out making up weird voices, doing these weird roles, and then I made my friends laugh at university, and I got to do this comedy show in London. I was creating characters. Then I did some dancing, and maybe because of my looks, I got typecast as a romantic lead. It worked out well for me, but it's not where I'm at my best, partly because it's not very fun to play.”

Hugh Grant in Paddington 2.

From Cloud AtlasHugh Grant seems to have regained a taste for comedy, playing a series of memorable roles: for example, he had a lot of fun in Man from the Hill: Code UNCLEby Guy Ritchie, in 2015, and especially as the big bad guy in Paddington 2by Paul King. Phoenix Buchanan is a role that allowed him once again to wear multiple costumes, and to show the public his love of acting. Two directors that he found again for The Gentleman And Operation Fortuneand for Wonkathis time slipping into the skin of an Oompa Loompa.

Hugh Grant will soon return to a completely different genre, the psychological thriller, with Heretica film by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods in which he traumatizes young evangelists. Then he will once again play Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones: Mad About Himthe fourth installment of the romantic saga.

Cloud Atlas is to be (re)watched on Première Max. Here is its trailer:

Hugh Grant Rewrote His Scenes for Bridget Jones 4