Before Hugh Grant was a bespectacled serial killer in Heretic, the actor featured in a string of cozy-as-pie rom-coms, including the 2003 holiday classic Love Actually, directed by Richard Curtis.
The film, which features a mostly British cast as they wield in and out of the trials and tribulations of love, spotlights Grant as the affable, bachelor Prime Minister pining after his staffer who serves him tea and biscuits at 10 Downing Street. The movie also circles around themes of loss, betrayal, unrequited love, and loneliness — but it can easily be missed among the profuse amount of tinsel and blinking Christmas lights.
When discussing his work in both rom-coms and horror in a recent interview with Variety, Grant touched on the nuances of both genres and how Curtis’ films in particular aren’t just about the fuzzy feel-goods.
“With the benefit of time, I really appreciate the good ones I did,” said the actor when looking back at his work. “The Richard Curtis ones are really about pain. It’s something my wife spotted. She’s Swedish; they’re good on pain. She was watching Love Actually, and she said, ‘Everyone’s in pain, and the humor is all a means for dealing with pain.’”
That element is what “makes them sustain and not float away like a piece of fluff,” said Grant when speaking about the film’s characters. He also credited the Marc Lawrence movies he starred in as “great because he genuinely loves people and there’s a warmth that I find enchanting.” The actor added, “Because I’ve seen the romantic comedies that are slightly put together by committee, and they don’t work as well.”
The cast of Love Actually have reunited throughout the years. In 2017, the short sequel, Red Nose Day Actually, which was also made by Curtis and further developed key character storylines, was released. To mark its 20th anniversary in 2022, ABC featured the stars on a TV holiday special with Diane Sawyer featuring interviews with Grant, Emma Thompson, Bill Nighy, Laura Linney, Thomas Brodie-Sangster, and Olivia Olson.
Last year’s A24 horror flick Heretic gained Grant praise for his portrayal of Mr. Reed, with a Rolling Stone review declaring that “creepy, evil Hugh Grant is the best Hugh Grant,” while also noting, “The manner in which Grant both grounds the material and lobs it into over-the-top territory, however, is simply divine.”
Grant is set to return to the rom-world in 2025, reprising his role as the ever-uncommitted Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.
