We Spoke To Hugh Grant About His Favourite Evil Roles, Perfectionism, And Embracing The Chaos

Throughout my lifetime I’ve watched many variations of Hugh. I’ve seen lover Hugh, I’ve seen family man Hugh, I’ve seen sexy Hugh, but my favourite Hugh is evil Hugh. How do you put yourself into that evil mindset compared to your other characters and what is your favourite Hugh to play?

Hugh Grant: I’ve always thought it helps if you enjoy the character and for some reason, I get a perverse pleasure from being diabolical. Perhaps it’s kind of vicarious, I would like to be that evil and I think we all would in a way. They are fascinating characters, what happened to him? And how did you end up like that? I’m quite into plumbing the depths of these people and working on their complete biography. I read a lot about other cult leaders and serial killers and psychologically it’s a fascinating bit of research. 

And who’s my favourite – well I do love this guy, he’d be up there in my favourites because tonally he’s interesting, in that he is really fucked up and bad but he thinks he’s quite fun, he thinks he’s funny. A bit of a prankster, mischievous 

Just a bit cheeky!

Hugh: Cheeky.

A cheeky little killer.

Hugh: Yes the groovy prof, the trendy prof who gets a following from his students and because of that you can blend comedy and terror. I think that’s a good combination.

This film was a great reminder of how far charm can get you in life. Hugh, you are quite charming and known for being quite charming so I wanted to know if there have been any occasions you’ve managed to charm your way in or out of just for fun

Hugh: I’m not as bad as my brother, he’s made a fortune in banking from just charming everyone, but he can’t stop – it’s like a nervous tick. So wherever we go, the one that brings us a cup of coffee or the people you’re standing in the lift with, he has to charm them to death. He has to have them fall in with him and he does. But I often ask myself or ask him afterwards “You don’t really care about that person?” “Oh God no” – so it slightly runs in our family, but it’s fake.

Well, I guess that’s why you’re a great actor. You mentioned looking into serial killers and cult leaders, and this film touches on a lot of religious and ancient texts. Just how much research did you do into religion, or did you just go off the script? Because from the topics touched in the film, I can imagine that would take a long time.

Hugh: The older I get, the more nervous I get and one of the things that seems to help my nerves in the weeks and months leading up to filming is to do an enormous amount of work haha. So I go through the script with a very fine tooth comb. Why does he do that? Why does he say that? And how does that? And what does that tell us about his background about his parents, about his schooling, About what happened with his best friend, and this thing mushrooms. So I researched the killers, the cult leaders, and I did some work on the religious side as well although the the filmmakers, Scott (Beck) and Bryan (Woods) had kind of done all that fascinating stuff. I was lucky to be able to say it because I found it genuinely fresh and interesting what they’re saying about Christianity for instance. 

I love films like this that give you an opportunity to question yourself and everything you know because it’s written so well. As you were diving into this character, did you realise anything new about yourself or perhaps gain a new perspective on life?

Hugh: Well, not from this film so much…maybe. In the last few films, the last maybe eight years, the thing I realised is to try and relax a bit. Try and trust your instincts; there’s no perfect take. Allow your instincts to just take over and invent things in the moment. And that whole thing of relaxing and not thinking there’s a perfect anything I’ve generally found to be useful in later life with my cchildren. You know you say “I think I want to make them like this and this will be perfect or this to be perfect” and it’s only taken me 10 years to realise that’s terrible parenting. You’ve got to relax and look at them, what do they actually like? And then take an interest in whatever God-awful music they like. 

It’s like the quote “Chasing perfection is an imperfection.”

Hugh: It certainly is. It’s a handicap virtually, because it makes you immobile. 

Yes, you’re so focused you can’t see what else is happening around you.

Hugh: Yes, and then you become terrified of failure of not reaching that perfection. Woody Allen was the one who said, “90% of success is showing up” and it’s really hard to show up if you’re terrified of failure, so you’ve got to allow yourself to be a bit shit sometimes.

I’m going to take that, if I fail tomorrow I’ll just be like “well I’m not dead.”

Hugh: Exactly haha.