Editing Hugh Grant (section)

==Screen persona==
Grant began his career as a [[character actor]] but became predominantly a comedy (especially a [[romantic comedy]]) actor from his rise to stardom in mid-1990s until the 2010s. He said he moved away from romantic comedies after the failure of ''[[Did You Hear About the Morgans?]]'' (2009). In a 2020 interview with ''[[The Sydney Morning Herald]]'', he said: "I got old and ugly and I'm not appropriate for romantic comedy films anymore, which has been a great blessing".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Idato|first=Michael|title=Hugh Grant is 'old, ugly and not appropriate for romantic comedies' – and he's loving it|date=22 October 2020|access-date=1 November 2020|url=https://www.smh.com.au/culture/tv-and-radio/hugh-grant-is-old-ugly-and-not-appropriate-for-romantic-comedies-and-he-s-loving-it-20201019-p566bl.html|newspaper=The Sydney Morning Herald}}</ref> Even though his recent credits include political dramas like ''A Very English Scandal'' and crime films like ''The Gentlemen'', Grant is still often associated with his [[Richard Curtis]]-scripted romantic comedy films. In the British press, it is common to compare young romantic comedy actors to him.

{{Quote box|width=25%|align=right|bgcolor=#E0E6F8|quote=I've never been tempted to do the part where I cry or get AIDS or save some people from a concentration camp just to get good reviews. I genuinely believe that comedy acting, light comedy acting, is as hard as, if not harder than serious acting, and it genuinely doesn't bother me that all the prizes and the good reviews automatically by knee-jerk reaction go to the deepest, darkest, most serious performances and parts. It makes me laugh."|source=—Grant explaining his propensity for comedic roles, 2010<ref name="Thorpe">{{cite news|last=Thorpe|first=Vanessa|url=https://www.theguardian.com/film/2010/sep/26/hugh-grant-colin-firth-fifty|title=Hugh Grant and Colin Firth, the screen's leading Englishmen at 50|work=[[The Observer]]|date=26 September 2010|access-date=26 September 2010}}</ref>}}

Remarking upon his romantic comedy star era, some film critics, such as [[Roger Ebert]], have defended the limited variety of his performances, while some others have dismissed Grant as a "[[wikt:one-trick pony|one-trick pony]]". [[Eric Fellner]], co-owner of Working Title Films and a longtime collaborator, said, "His range hasn't been fully tested, but each performance is unique."<ref>{{cite news|first=Oliver|last=Marre|title=I want to be alone. Oh really?|work=The Observer|date=29 April 2007}}</ref> Many of Grant's films of the 1990s followed a similar plot that captured an optimistic bachelor experiencing a series of embarrassing incidents to find true love, often with an American woman. In earlier films, he was adept at plugging into the stereotype of a repressed Englishman for humorous effects, allowing him to gently satirise his characters as he summed them up and played against the type simultaneously.<ref name="Hugh Grant festival"/> These performances were sometimes deemed excessive, in the words of ''The Washington Post''{{'}}s Rita Kempley, due to Grant's "comic overreactions—the [[Overacting|mugging]], the stuttering, the fluttering eyelids". She added: "He's got more tics than Benny Hill."<ref>{{Cite news|last=Kempley|first=Rita|title=Nine Months|date=12 July 1995|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-srv/style/longterm/movies/videos/ninemonthspg13kempley_c021e6.htm|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> His penchant for conveying his characters' feelings with mannerisms, rather than direct emotions, has been one of the foremost objections raised against his acting style. Stephen Hunter of ''The Washington Post'' once stated that, to be effective as a comic performer, Grant must get "his [[Shuckin' and jivin'|jiving and shucking]] under control".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Hunter|first=Stephen|title='Music and Lyrics': Work Is What Makes Life Hum|date=14 February 2007|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/02/13/AR2007021301081.html|newspaper=The Washington Post}}</ref> Film historian [[David Thomson (film critic)|David Thomson]] opined in ''[[The New Biographical Dictionary of Film]]'' that the actor equated merely "itchy mannerisms" with screen acting.<ref>David Thomson ''A New Biographical Dictionary of Film'', London: Little, Brown, 2002, p. 352. Published in New York by Knopf.</ref>

Grant's screen persona in his films of the 2000s gradually developed into a cynical, self-loathing cad.<ref>{{Cite news|last=Dargis|first=Manohla|author-link=Manohla Dargis|title=Paul Weitz's 'American Dreamz': An 'Idol' Clone With a Presidential Aura|newspaper=The New York Times|date=21 April 2006|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://movies.nytimes.com/2006/04/21/movies/21drea.html}}</ref> Claudia Puig of ''[[USA Today]]'' celebrated this transformation with the observation that finally "gone [were] the self-conscious 'Aren't I adorable' mannerisms that seemed endearing at the start of his film career but have grown cloying in more recent movies".<ref>{{Cite news|last=Puig|first=Claudia|title='About a Boy' has singular charm|newspaper=[[USA Today]]|date=16 May 2002|access-date=29 September 2007|url=https://www.usatoday.com/life/movies/2002/2002-05-17-boy-review.htm}}</ref> According to Carina Chocano, amongst film critics, the two tropes most commonly associated with Grant are that he reinvented his screen persona in ''Bridget Jones's Diary'' and ''About a Boy'' and dreads the possibility of becoming a parody of himself.<ref>{{cite news|first=Carina|last=Chocano|title=A reluctant leading man|url=https://www.latimes.com/entertainment/news/movies/cl-et-hugh14feb14,1,7879541.story|work=Los Angeles Times|date=14 February 2007|access-date=11 September 2007}}{{dead link|date=June 2021|bot=medic}}{{cbignore|bot=medic}}</ref>

Nonetheless, Grant has occasionally acted in dramas. He played a sleazy, snide community theatre director with a penchant for young actors in the drama film ''[[An Awfully Big Adventure]]'', which received critical praise, and for "a very quiet, dignified" performance as [[Frédéric Chopin]] in [[James Lapine]]'s biopic film ''[[Impromptu (1991 film)|Impromptu]]''.<ref>{{cite web|last=Hicks|first=Chris|url=https://www.deseret.com/1991/5/20/20087805/film-review-impromptu/|title=Film review: Impromptu|work=Deseret News|date=20 May 1991|access-date=29 June 2014}}</ref><ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.nytimes.com/movie/review?res=990CE3DD1530F932A15754C0A963958260|work=The New York Times|first=Janet|last=Maslin|title=FILM REVIEW; A Look at Hugh Grant Before His Big Success|date=21 July 1995}}</ref> In 2012, he played six "incredibly evil" characters in the epic drama film ''[[Cloud Atlas (film)|Cloud Atlas]]'', an experience he has talked about positively, saying:

{{Blockquote|I thought before I read it that I'd turn it down, which I normally do, but I was interested in meeting [''Cloud Atlas'' co-directors] [[the Wachowskis]] because I have always admired them enormously. And they are so charming and fascinating.... I slightly called my own bluff. In one of the parts I am a [[Human cannibalism|cannibal]], about 2,000 years in the future, and I thought, "I can do that. It's easy." And then I am suddenly standing in a cannibal skirt on a mountaintop in Germany and they are saying, "You know, hungry! We must have that flesh-eating, like a leopard who is so hungry", and I am thinking, "I can't do that! Just give me a witty line!"<ref>{{cite magazine|url=https://www.empireonline.com/news/story.asp?NID=33147|title=Exclusive: Hugh Grant Talks Cloud Atlas|last=De Semlyen|first=Phil|magazine=[[Empire (magazine)|Empire]]|date=15 February 2012|access-date=2 November 2012}}</ref>}}

After ''Cloud Atlas'', Grant has never starred in a romantic comedy film with exceptions of the dramedy ''[[The Rewrite]]'' (2014), where "romantic comedy is only a small part of it."<ref>{{cite news|url=https://www.indiewire.com/2015/02/hugh-grant-says-he-finds-most-romantic-comedies-repugnant-at-the-rewrite-premiere-65172/|title=Hugh Grant Says He Finds Most Romantic Comedies 'Repugnant' at 'The Rewrite' Premiere |first=David|last=Canfield|date=11 February 2015|publisher=IndieWire}}</ref> and his brief return as his ''Bridget Jones'' character Daniel Cleaver in ''[[Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy]]'' (2025). Grant is known as a meticulous performer who approaches his roles like a [[character actor]], working hard to make his acting appear spontaneous.<ref name="natural does it">Dave Kehr, [https://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/17/movies/at-the-movies.html At the Movies:  For Hugh Grant, Natural Does It, New York Times] {{webarchive|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20160307003059/http://www.nytimes.com/2002/05/17/movies/at-the-movies.html|date=7 March 2016 }} (17 May 2002)</ref> In a career spanning more than 35&nbsp;years, Grant has repeatedly claimed that acting was not his true calling, but rather a career that developed by happenstance.<ref name="bridget jones interview"/> However, in 2020, after moving on to more character roles, he has stated that he "enjoys acting now".<ref>{{cite news|title=The Undoing's Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman on why they jumped at the chance for "classic thriller" scripts
|newspaper=[[Radio Times]]|date=25 October 2020|url=https://www.radiotimes.com/news/tv/2020-10-25/the-undoing-hugh-grant-nicole-kidman-big-rt-interview/|first=Adam|last=Tanswell}}</ref>