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Hugh Grant Calls His Notting Hill Character ‘Despicable,’ Reveals Regrets About THIS Iconic Scene
Hugh Grant labeled his Notting Hill character 'despicable' in a new interview, revealing regrets over a key scene with Julia Roberts. He reflects on why he feels his character was flawed.
Hugh Grant has a bone to pick with his Notting Hill character, William 'Will' Thacker. The actor, who revisited clips of some of his most popular movies during a Vanity Fair video interview published on November 14, called his character in the 1999 romantic comedy "despicable" for the following reason:
"Whenever I’m flicking through channels at home after a few drinks and this comes up, I just think, ‘Why doesn’t my character have any balls?’” Grant said in the interview, before criticizing a particular scene involving his character and his love interest, Anna Scott, played by Julia Roberts.
“There’s a scene in this film where she’s in my house, and the paps come to the front door and ring the bell, and I think I just let her go past me and open the door, and that’s awful,” he added.
Grant revealed that all his girlfriends, including his wife, had probed him about the scene, asking why he didn’t stop Roberts’ character from facing the fierce paparazzi cameras alone. All he could say in response was that it was written that way. “I think he’s despicable, really,” he reflected on his character.
In the interview, Grant also praised Julia Roberts’ acting skills, calling her great at emoting.
Written by Richard Curtis, who later reunited with Grant in Bridget Jones's Diary (2001) and Love Actually (2003), Notting Hill follows the romance between Grant’s bookstore owner and Roberts’s famous American actress. The movie, which was nominated for three Golden Globe Awards in 2000, including individual nods for both lead stars, is regarded as one of the best rom-coms of all time.
Grant recently starred in Heretic, his first venture into horror. In the flick, he plays a withdrawn Englishman who threatens the lives of two missionaries when they visit his home. When asked about gravitating more toward villainous characters recently at the 2024 TIFF, the actor, 64, humorously offered that, because of his declining age and thus beauty, he's not being asked to play the leading man anymore.
While Grant has done some applause-worthy work as either villains or at least characters of questionable moral standing lately, he hasn’t fully moved on from the romantic-comedy genre, as he is set to reprise his role as Daniel Cleaver in an upcoming Bridget Jones movie, due for release next year.
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