“It’s impeccable”: Hugh Grant names his favourite movie of all time
While most people think they might have Hugh Grant figured out due to his years of performing variations on the same fubsy character in British rom-coms such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, the actor has consistently proven that he’s remarkably hard to pin down. Despite many across the pond deeming him the quintessential British actor, as typified by his performance as the lovelorn Prime Minister in 2003’s Love Actually, Grant’s scope is much broader than the consensus would have you believe. From The Gentlemen to Cloud Atlas, there are many examples of the acting dodging the pigeonhole.
One of the best examples is his most recent film, the fantasy action comedy Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. In it, he stars alongside Chris Pine, Michelle Rodriguez and Regé-Jean Page as Forge Fitzwilliam, an ambitious rogue and con artist. Fitzwilliam could not be further from his characters in the rom-coms mentioned above and has more in common with his duplicitous private investigator, Fletcher, from 2019’s The Gentlemen, than any of his others. Albeit, the comical voice is nowhere to be seen.
A man with a penchant for a surprise – as his “uncomfortable” viral interview from the Oscars red carpet reflects – during a recent Wired interview alongside Dungeons & Dragons co-stars Rodriguez and Pine, Grant revealed the title of his favourite film of all time. It was a somewhat startling admission; both the title and passion with which he made the admission have surprised many fans.
Answering the much-searched internet question, “What is Hugh Grant’s favourite film?” the Notting Hill star revealed definitively: “Ever? (The) Sound of Music.”
Providing a hilarious account of his love for the 1965 musical, he explained: “It’s a difficult situation. I’m married to a Swedish woman who comes from the north of Sweden, where men are really men. They’re so manly, they hardly speak; and they chop wood. What they don’t do is watch The Sound of Music in the afternoons and sing along with The Mother Superior when she sings ‘Climb Every Mountain’. And they certainly don’t cry when the father – Christopher Plummer – is touched by his children’s singing and then joins in. But I do cry.”
After a brief guffaw from his co-stars, Grant maintained: “But it’s impeccable, the film is impeccable, there’s not a moment that I don’t love. And I sometimes go to those… You know you can have a whole party where you screen the film, and everyone dresses up as characters… I think it was Elton John’s 60th was like that. I went as The Baroness.”
“Wow,” Michelle Rodriguez said as the laughter gave way to growing awkwardness. Moving everyone on, she asked swiftly, “Next question?”
Hugh Grant as The Baroness. Now there’s a surprise.
