Hugh Grant ‘Lost Faith’ in His Acting Skills By Believing His Critics

Hugh Grant lost his confidence after listening too closely to those who criticized his talent.

“I entirely lost faith that I could do anything else. I believed my critics really,” the actor, 64, said on the Monday, November 18, episode of the “Smartless” podcast. “But I see now maybe I was wrong.”

Throughout his career, Grant has starred in some of the most beloved romance movies of all time, including Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’ Diary and more. As Grant has gotten older, he noticed that he stopped getting offers to be the film’s leading man, and was instead getting more quirky roles. However, Grant noted that he got his start doing character work.

“Because at the very beginning, if I had any talent, it was for doing strange characters and silly voices and outlandish things that weren’t anything like me,” he shared.

While Grant is best known for his countless roles in romantic comedies over the years, he got his start in a “comedy group” in the ‘80s. Grant and his troupe would perform shows across Edinburgh and London and noted they were “quite successful.”

“We used to perform in pubs with people like Mike Meyers,” he recalled. “He was next on the bill and that was fun.”

Grant also shared that after wrapping up Four Weddings and a Funeral, which would go on to be his breakout role, he worked with the same director on An Awfully Big Adventure, which was a much darker project.

“I was a nicotine-stained, predatory, evil, twisted, unpleasant theater director and I was pretty good,” he reflected. “I wish I kept that other strand of my career going through all those years and years of rom coms.”

Grant clarified that he didn’t wish that he did more serious projects instead of the beloved romantic films.

“Not that I hate the romantic comedies, I’m proud of them,” he said. “It’s nice to have made movies that actually entertain people and they’re much harder than people think. And in some cases, much better than the sneerers think.”

Grant added that he and his wife, Anna Eberstein, recently watched Love Actually together and she picked up on the movie’s deeper meaning. She pointed out the movie was mostly about dealing with “pain” — which he agreed with.

“Quite correctly, she said, ‘What’s good about this movie is that it’s about pain.’ And the good romantic comedies I did were really about pain,” he said. “It was humor about dealing with pain [and] unrequited love.”

Grant confessed that he wished he had more variety in his filmography earlier in his career while he still had “some confidence.”