From the early 90s onwards, Hugh Grant became known as the undisputed king of the romantic comedy.
With the likes of Four Weddings And A Funeral, Notting Hill, Love Actually and Bridget Jones’s Diary already under his belt, the British actor later went transatlantic in rom-coms like Music And Lyrics, Two Weeks Notice and Did You Hear About The Morgans?.
However, while you might think the genre pretty much came as second nature to Hugh, he told former co-star Drew Barrymore on her US talk show that he “never felt comfortable” doing his famous romantic comedies.
“I love those films. I love the fact that people still like them, but I never felt comfortable really doing them,” he said.
“I don’t know about you, but I prefer more of a mask. I want to be someone else. Then it frees me up and then I quite like acting.”
Elsewhere in the interview, Hugh claimed he’d become “a bit better” in his job and “a little less bad after I had children, got married, got happier”.
“I got too old and fat and ugly to do romantic comedies obviously,” he joked, claiming that since saying farewell to romantic comedies he’s been “offered more interesting things” that have made his career more varied.
Indeed, the past few years alone have seen Hugh take a prominent role in Charlie Brooker’s satirical Netflix special Death To 2020, the award-winning drama A Very English Scandal and, of course, the much-loved Paddington films.
You can also see Hugh in action in what must surely be his unlikeliest role to date, playing an Oompa Loompa to Timothée Chalamet’s Willy Wonka in the new musical Wonka (even if it doesn’t sound like the filming process was Hugh’s favourite on-set experience…).