The Oscar winner who turned down ‘Withnail and I’: “I prostrated myself in his Winnebago”
What would Withnail and I be without Richard E Grant? The actor wasn’t famous when he was cast as the titular out-of-work actor in Bruce Robinson’s 1987 cult classic, but for the millions of die-hard fans who now spend a sizeable portion of their lives quoting his lines, it is positively unthinkable to imagine anyone else in that role.
The film follows two friends over the course of an accidental holiday to the rainiest version of the Lake District ever committed to film. Grant plays Withnail, the alcoholic, melodramatic pessimist who wields a special kind of magnetism and comes from a wealthy family. He was based on Robinson’s real-life flatmate Vivian McKerrell, while Marwood (the “I” of the title) was based on the writer/director himself.
When Grant was cast in the film, he was, much like his character, a struggling actor holding onto his idealism about the craft and believing that he would surely break through someday. Unlike the character, however, he actually did have what it takes to follow through with it. Not only was he able to perform drunkenness better than any actor since Jimmy Stewart in The Philadelphia Story, but he was able to smoothly deliver the outlandish poetry of Robinson’s script in a way that no other actor could.
Somehow, however, Grant was not the first choice for playing Withnail. That distinction falls to Daniel Day-Lewis, arguably the greatest actor of his generation who. At that time, he had not yet won any of his three Oscars, but he had already shown his generational talent in movies like My Beautiful Launderette and A Room with a View. He somehow passed on the role, leaving it up for grabs.
According to Robinson, the issue was finding an actor who reminded him of McKerrell. Presumably, he assumed that, since Day-Lewis could do literally anything as a performer, he would be the only person who could fit his vision. The role of Marwood was easier. After one actor was fired for having a thick Liverpudlian accent, Robinson brought in Paul McGann.
When Grant finally won the role of Withnail, it changed his life, and he was finally able to thank Day-Lewis for turning the film down less than a decade later when they were filming Martin Scorsese’s The Age of Innocence together. By that time, Day-Lewis had won his first Oscar, and Grant had been brought to Hollywood to appear in movies directed by cinema greats like Robert Altman and Francis Ford Coppola. They both had a lot to be thankful for.
“Thank God Daniel Day-Lewis turned it down,” Grant told Vanity Fair in 2019, around the time he was nominated for an Oscar for Can You Ever Forgive Me? “That’s all that I can say. When I worked with him on Age of Innocence, I prostrated myself in his Winnebago and said, ‘Oh, Daniel, I owe you everything that’s happened to me!’ And it’s true.”
If any fan of Withnail and I ever found themselves in a Winnebago with the three-time Oscar winner, they would probably feel the need to prostrate themselves, too. There is simply no film without Grant, and a world without Withnail and I would be a very dark one indeed.
