Episode 1208 - Hugh Grant
Marc:all right let's do this how are you what the fuckers what the fuck buddies what the fuck nicks what's happening i'm mark maron this is my podcast wtf welcome to it hugh grant is on the show today hugh grant
Marc:Now, I'll be honest with you.
Marc:I didn't know if I liked Hugh Grant.
Marc:I know Hugh Grant.
Marc:We all know Hugh Grant.
Marc:Everybody knows Hugh Grant.
Marc:He's that cute guy.
Marc:But lately, he's been a little less cute and a little more intense and a little more interesting to me, frankly.
Marc:But then I watched him in this new this new biddies in the undoing dark shit.
Marc:But I didn't know what to expect, you know, because I think back about Hugh Grant.
Marc:You remember when he got busted?
Marc:And I thought I thought this at that point, he must have been like the biggest star in the world.
Marc:That's what I remember.
Marc:But the truth was he hadn't even released an American film yet.
Marc:He was just this guy that was at the tip of the spear of total media hype.
Marc:And I talked to him about it and he completely knows that.
Marc:But but it was sort of interesting talking to him because I didn't know what to expect.
Marc:He was in Istanbul.
Marc:There was a tremendous time difference.
Marc:It was the sun was setting there.
Marc:And and he was having a cocktail, it seemed.
Marc:And he was cracking me up.
Marc:He's a very dark, self-deprecating man.
Marc:I enjoyed it very much.
Marc:So that's going to happen in a few minutes.
Marc:I've been sleeping better and my muscles feel better.
Marc:I don't know if it's a change in vitamins.
Marc:I don't know if it's the combination of yoga and meditation.
Marc:I'm having deep dreams.
Marc:I don't know what they mean.
Marc:Had a dream about my second wife.
Marc:And in the dream, she wasn't wearing makeup and she was a giant.
Marc:And I just remember being excited to see her, but not remembering how huge she was.
Marc:Like my head came literally to her crotch level and she was just this giant, powerful looking woman.
Marc:And I was like, were you all, was it always, was it, there was always this big a size difference.
Marc:I don't remember this at all.
Marc:I guess metaphorically, we can figure that one out, can't we?
Marc:Can't we?
Marc:And yesterday I went and did some voice work for the Bad Guys movie.
Marc:Apparently this book is very popular with kids, Bad Guys, and I play the snake, but I was able to watch some of the completed sequences and it's like fucking amazing.
Marc:I'm not a big animation guy, but this stuff is moving.
Marc:But I think, is everything moving now?
Marc:What is happening to me?
Marc:What am I going to do?
Marc:Jesus Christ.
Marc:Do I even want to do anything anymore?
Marc:Man, I don't know where you're at, but geez, man, I did some planting the other day.
Marc:I planted some plants.
Marc:I've been walking by these beds around my house with these that I hated for over a year because I, you know, I threw some plants in there.
Marc:I had the gardener throw some plants in there and I didn't like them.
Marc:And some of the plants, they never grow.
Marc:It just looks shitty.
Marc:And it's right in front of my house.
Marc:It was driving me nuts for over a year.
Marc:And I get it in my mind, well, I better do some research.
Marc:I better look at some books.
Marc:Maybe I can have somebody come in and assess what's happening out there.
Marc:And then finally, it was just sort of like, fuck it.
Marc:Fuck it.
Marc:And this is how I work all the time.
Marc:I don't know how you work, but I get right to the end of my rope.
Marc:And then it's seemingly impulsively, seemingly impulsively.
Marc:I just fucking go do what I have to do in a flurry.
Marc:I know I've got to do it for a long time, but then it just it almost has to be it has to be done on impulse.
Marc:Like I just went to run an errand somewhere and I went by the nursery after and I bought about seven or eight plants for less than $100.
Marc:And then I just got on my knees and I got my boots on and I got a little shovel and I planted a bunch of plants.
Marc:And it has taken such a fucking load off my mind.
Marc:It's such a pleasure to walk into my house.
Marc:It took like a half an hour.
Marc:What the fuck is wrong with me?
Marc:What is wrong with us?
Marc:I mean, the one thing you learn about stuff that makes you happy in your home and around your home is if you've been forced to stay in that box for a year.
Marc:Whatever you thought was slightly fucked up or slightly driving you crazy or slightly annoying or slightly ugly, it's definitely fucking annoying, ugly, irritating now.
Marc:And you can just fucking get rid of it.
Marc:Now, I'm not talking about children or partners.
Marc:I'm talking about objects.
Marc:All right.
Marc:Don't misunderstand this.
Marc:Do not get rid of your children.
Marc:Do not get rid of your partner.
Marc:Well, I mean, look.
Marc:Oddly, you got to keep the kids.
Marc:But if it's been a year and you've realized something about your relationship, maybe you should make a move.
Marc:Maybe you should make a decision.
Marc:Maybe it's time.
Marc:OK, so look, Hugh Grant.
Marc:I had a very good time talking to him, and he's nominated for a SAG Award for Outstanding Performance by a Male Actor in a TV Movie or Limited Series for his role as Jonathan in The Undoing.
Marc:You can watch that on HBO Max.
Marc:You can watch all his movies.
Marc:You know Hugh Grant.
Marc:You know him.
Marc:When I spoke to him, he was in Turkey.
Marc:Yeah, this is me and Hugh Grant.
Marc:He's in Turkey.
Marc:Hello.
Marc:How's it going, Hugh?
Guest:That was really natural.
Marc:I'm very good at this.
Marc:I've been doing it a long time.
Marc:You can tell.
Marc:I think this is the longest stretch of miles between people that we've had.
Marc:where are you la i'm in la yeah you're in turkey yes sir what have you ever have you been there before yeah i've been on silly holidays here in the 1980s so people go on holidays to turkey oh yes it's hot and it's cheap if you're european it's a good and if you're russian it's a very good destination oh so if you enjoy uh the the nice weather in russians you you go to turkey
Guest:I love both.
Marc:I'm very happy here.
Marc:The thing I always wonder about Turkey is, isn't there an authoritarian regime?
Marc:Does that in any way hamper your good times?
Guest:Well, I'm here doing a job.
Guest:I'm making a film.
Marc:I know.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:So I've had, you know what actors are like.
Guest:When we act, we park all our morality in grandstanding.
Marc:Well, I don't think it's a moral thing, but even if you're vacationing, because I know people live in those countries and they seem to have a life.
Marc:I mean, I assume they're, you know, web designers and massage therapists that are very pleasant and happy.
Marc:But I mean, I just want just wondering if you feel it.
Guest:A little bit.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Like, are you nervous now?
Guest:They're extremely nice to me, I have to say.
Guest:The Turks are completely charming.
Guest:I love them.
Marc:So now we're good.
Guest:Let's not go down Erdogan Road.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:If there's any monitors in the room, you've done your bit.
Marc:What is the movie, man?
Marc:Can you say?
Guest:Yeah, it's another Guy Ritchie film.
Guest:I've made two already.
Guest:This is another one.
Guest:Stars Jason Statham.
Guest:It's like a spy thing.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I'm a billionaire.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It talks like that.
Marc:A billionaire arms dealer that talks like that.
Marc:Which accent is that, would you call it?
Guest:Well, that's sort of North London.
Guest:So a lot of the time you say, no, no, Mark, shush, I'm talking.
Guest:Shush.
Shush.
Guest:How long does it take you to get hold of that accent?
Guest:I kind of know it.
Guest:I grew up around a lot of London accents.
Guest:And I'm stealing from a few sources, but I'm too frightened to say who they are.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Characters from your past.
Guest:Well, no.
Guest:Some of them are quite well known.
Guest:But you're on the Coke.
Guest:I'm on the whiskey.
Guest:That's good.
Guest:That's right.
Marc:Good for you.
Marc:It's actually black coffee.
Marc:I like to drink it out of a glass.
Marc:It's 7.30 a.m.
Marc:here.
Marc:You're winding down.
Marc:I'm gearing up.
Guest:I'm sorry you're doing it at 7.30, but think of me doing Jimmy Kimmel this morning at 3.35 a.m.
Guest:You did?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:How'd that go?
Guest:Well, as you can imagine, it was a catastrophe.
I barely speak.
Marc:I like the fact that we're all on a level playing field production value-wise.
Marc:Like, this might as well be The Tonight Show.
Marc:I can do The Tonight Show from my backyard.
Marc:Whoever thought that would fucking happen?
Marc:Like, national television from my porch.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So, these characters, like in The Last Guy, Richie, too, you did another sort of guy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:It seems like you've become, like, a different manifestation of yourself in terms of acting.
Marc:It seems like you enjoy it more.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Yeah?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, the funny thing is...
Guest:I started out in my 20s doing, I made a living from doing silly characters, silly voices.
Marc:Well, yeah.
Marc:I mean, what was the background in that?
Marc:I noticed that there was some comedy and some other stuff.
Marc:What part of London did you grow up in?
Guest:I grew up in West London.
Guest:And, yeah, I just, that's what I did.
Guest:I did it as a child.
Guest:I did it at school.
Guest:I made people, you know, laugh, doing imitations of people.
Guest:And then in my early 20s, I had a, you know, that's how I made my living, doing silly voices on radio commercials, which I produced and wrote with friends.
Guest:And then suddenly one day I got cast in a film and I went off on a 30-year detour.
LAUGHTER
Guest:But it wasn't really the plan?
Guest:It just got swept up?
Guest:Well, I was so bad in my early films, I thought if I do one more, just to prove I wasn't quite that bad.
Guest:And then you're never satisfied.
Guest:Right.
Guest:Anyway, now I'm back to doing silly voices, yeah.
Marc:Do you have actors in your family?
Marc:I mean, what drove you initially?
Marc:How many kids are there of your siblings?
Guest:A lot?
Guest:Oh, I have one brother who is...
Guest:A banker in New York.
Guest:And there's no acting whatsoever in my family.
Guest:In fact, they were all horrified when I ended up going on that detour.
Marc:And what kind of like do you come from like I don't understand how Britain works, but do you have a long lineage?
Marc:Are you from a prestigious heritage of sorts?
Guest:uh no there's no titles sadly i i would love a title but um i think you can get one now can't you i mean you're hugh grant can't you just get a title well the government really hate me so i don't think so but uh yeah my family were just nice they were like gentle folk i suppose penniless gentle folk oh really you grew up uh you know economically compromised
Guest:My dad was in the army and he decided to come out and make his fortune in business.
Guest:And it turned out that that plan didn't work out.
Guest:It did not work out.
Guest:And it was the 70s and everyone was unemployed and the lights went out all the time because we had power cuts and strikes.
Guest:And I do remember all this in the 70s in Britain.
Guest:It was really hardcore.
Guest:The dead were unburied in the street.
Guest:The rubbish wasn't taken away by the rubbish.
Marc:Wait a minute.
Marc:Really?
Marc:Really?
Guest:The country was ruled by the unions, especially the miners union.
Guest:And that's why.
Guest:And then Maggie Thatcher came along and changed everything.
Marc:The dead were unburied in the street.
Guest:I may have exaggerated slightly, but yeah.
Marc:Is that like one story or was that just something like you're going to school and there's some dead people?
Guest:Well, I do love a dead person in the street.
Guest:I once made a film in Calcutta.
Guest:And I don't know if you've been to India, but it's pretty great if you're stuck in a traffic jam.
Guest:Past your window goes cars, cyclists, motorbike people, coppers, and then a cow.
Guest:And then a dead body just being carried on a stretcher.
Guest:And they might get stuck and you're just sitting looking at the dead body for a bit.
Marc:I guess there's an honesty to that, that we try to avoid at all costs.
Marc:And it's probably, you know, it's part of life, right?
Guest:Of course it is.
Guest:Of course it is.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I don't know why they're so spooked by it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, yeah.
Marc:I don't know if I'm spooked by it, but I just want it to happen quickly.
Guest:I understand.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:How can I help?
Guest:You're too far away.
Guest:I'm quite good at murder.
Marc:You're probably helping somehow now, whatever stress I'm experiencing.
Marc:But India, yeah, I've wanted to go to India, but I don't know anything about India other than I like the food and that doesn't seem to be a great reason to go because you probably can't eat too much without being careful.
Guest:You get poisoned on day three.
Guest:No matter what.
Guest:On that film, I was there for three months and I didn't leave the lavatory except to shoot my scenes.
Guest:And then I had to go straight back, continue with my explosive diarrhea.
Marc:What movie was that?
Marc:Now that we know the subtext.
Guest:It was a very pretentious French film.
Guest:This was, again, back in the 80s.
Guest:I went through a phase of doing Euro cinema.
Guest:And it was a film called La Nuit Bengali.
Guest:C'est un film français.
Guest:Do you speak French?
Guest:Well, I pretend I do.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I pretend I do.
Guest:I have a house in France.
Guest:I'm a massive Francophile.
Guest:I love the place.
Guest:I love the people.
Marc:So you can speak enough French to get by?
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But when I, I always say that I'm doing a sort of publicity tour for a film and we get to France and they say, could you do, you know, live radio interview in French?
Guest:And I say, of course.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And then I go on the live radio.
Guest:I can't understand a word anyone's say.
Guest:Not one word.
Yeah.
Marc:And they think you're just being an asshole?
Marc:Or what happens?
Guest:Well, it's difficult when it's a phone-in and you're under pressure and they've got accidents from strange regions of France.
Marc:How do you handle that?
Marc:You just go like, what?
Guest:What?
Guest:Yeah, you say, pardon, j'ai pas compris.
Guest:I'm sorry, I didn't understand.
Guest:You can say that once, maybe twice, but when you split it for the eighth time, they just cut you off with jingles and say, well, who is this idiot?
Marc:So like you're carrying like from the beginning, it seems OK.
Marc:So you do one movie.
Marc:You didn't think you were good in it.
Marc:And then it just starts rolling.
Marc:I mean, did you did you train to be an actor in any way other than like I read in some of the material that you had an actual comedy troupe?
Marc:Is that true?
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:That was back when I was doing Silly Voices.
Marc:And what, but was comedy something you, uh, appreciated?
Marc:Did you, were you like a Python fan?
Marc:Did you see a future?
Guest:Yes, of course.
Guest:Of course.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:It was the highlight of the week for us growing up.
Marc:And who were these guys in your troop?
Marc:Were you in college at the time?
Guest:No, I, I, oh, it's a complicated, it's a complicated story.
Guest:They were just guys I met.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:We have time.
Marc:Yeah.
Yeah.
Guest:And we ended up, we did a little show, and then it was popular, and then we did another one, and we did another one, and it got a bit bigger.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:We ended up at the Edinburgh Festival on the fringe, you know, there.
Marc:Yeah, for a month.
Guest:Our manager had booked us this theatre.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And he was an idiot.
Marc:He was an idiot.
Guest:And he booked a theatre that held 1,500 people, and our average audience in London was, you know, 50.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And our first night's audience in Edinburgh was three.
Guest:So three people in a 1500 seat theatre is depressing.
Guest:And every day we went out and gave out leaflets.
Guest:We got our audience up to about 20.
Guest:And then one day there was a guy from the BBC doing a show about the Fringe and
Guest:He saw our show and he really liked it.
Guest:So he said, come and do it on the BBC tonight.
Guest:So we did.
Guest:We did one sketch.
Guest:The next day, we went into the theatre ready to give out leaflets and played in an empty house.
Guest:And there was a queue three times around the block.
Guest:And we completely jammed out.
Guest:It was so exciting that we gave the worst performance of our life because every time 1,500 people laughed, we laughed too with excitement.
Yeah.
Marc:So you weren't you weren't you were still green, weren't ready for the big crowd.
Guest:We weren't ready for those huge laughs.
Marc:No.
Marc:And was it a disaster or did you get away with it?
Guest:No, it actually went quite well there.
Guest:And then we got given a TV show.
Guest:And that really was a disaster.
Guest:We got that completely wrong.
Marc:You know, I've had that Edinburgh Fringe experience and I'll never go back there.
Marc:I have a, you know, a trauma from doing that.
Marc:What did you do?
Marc:I did stand up there for a month, but I was on a double bill and I wasn't a known quantity.
Marc:So we were just struggling with audiences of nine to 15 for a fucking month.
Marc:And it's like beats you down, man.
Guest:Yeah, awful.
Guest:I also did.
Guest:I did a Hamlet there when I was at university.
Guest:We did Hamlet in Star Trek costumes.
Guest:We didn't have big audiences for that either.
Marc:I just will never go back.
Marc:You couldn't pay me to go back there.
Marc:It's like to compete with 900 acts who are doing other things.
Guest:900 aspirant middle class 20-year-olds.
Marc:Right, right.
Marc:With different varying degrees of costume and self-importance.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:yeah but i know what you mean but so was the tv show the comedy show where you started launching i mean it went badly but you seem to have uh done all right yeah but we had other work as i say we were making all these commercials right and we were writing sketches for other people on tv and we were still doing stuff in the theater yeah and then one day i um i still had an agent for acting but i never really returned that call and then
Guest:They left a message saying this guy, James Ivory, wants to see you for a film.
Guest:And I said, I don't think I really want to go.
Guest:I'm not interested in acting.
Guest:I've got my show and I won't get it anyway.
Guest:And my brother, the banker, happened to be home that then and he was living with me.
Guest:I was camping on his floor.
Guest:And he said, don't be an arsehole.
Guest:This is money.
Guest:You need money.
Guest:You're not paying any rent.
Guest:Go to the audition.
Guest:He made me put on a suit and I went and I got the job.
Guest:And and that that began this detour.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But I mean, you keep saying detour.
Marc:What would you think you were going to be doing otherwise?
Marc:I mean, did you have a plan that you got?
Guest:But who does have a plan in their 20s?
Guest:No, I was very, very happy doing that, doing our show.
Guest:I felt like a man at the end of the day.
Guest:When you write your own material, you have a hairier chest than if you're just saying someone else's words.
Marc:So you enjoyed doing the comedy, the sketch show, even though it wasn't popular, you felt that it didn't go well?
Guest:It was very popular in the theater.
Guest:It just was not good on television.
Marc:Oh, and so while you had the television show, you were also doing live performances.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:And that was satisfying.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Well, it was.
Guest:It was very frightening.
Guest:I mean, on the whole, it was always quite a big success.
Guest:But we then started putting in some new material, which was...
Guest:Much more controversial.
Guest:Oh, yeah.
Guest:And would either go brilliantly or play to sepulchral silence.
Marc:Like what were the hot topics?
Guest:The comedian, you'll know, is not desirable.
Marc:Yeah, it's a powerful silence, that one.
Marc:It is powerful.
Marc:It's got a little vacuum to it.
Marc:It's not just silence.
Marc:It takes something from you.
Guest:Yes.
Marc:Forever.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You fill that hole with resentment.
Marc:It's great.
Marc:It's a great business.
Marc:But I mean, what kind of buttons were you pushing?
Guest:Well...
Guest:We did some very, very blue material.
Guest:Yeah, that's good.
Guest:Just filthy.
Guest:Yeah, you had to get the right audience.
Guest:Sometimes friends of my mother would come out of loyalty.
Guest:Right.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:The report back was not great.
Guest:Well, they just looked ashen-faced at the end of it.
Guest:They didn't know how to be kind.
Guest:That was difficult.
Marc:They couldn't hide the what happened to you face.
Guest:They're such lovely people.
Guest:My mother only had lovely, loving, supportive liberal friends.
Guest:But it was very strong meat, what we were doing.
Guest:I don't know why.
Guest:And I could see they were horrified.
Guest:I mean, these were ladies who were brought up in the 1950s.
Marc:Yeah, of course.
Marc:Right.
Marc:Of course they were horrified.
Marc:But on some level, didn't you set out to horrify exactly those people?
Marc:Wasn't that the intent?
Guest:God knows what our intent was.
Marc:God knows.
Marc:So you were nostalgic and about that period of self generating material.
Guest:Yes, yes, yes, yes.
Marc:Well, how come you didn't have you done any of that since?
Guest:Not enough.
Guest:Although I do, it has to be said, embellish the script or the parts that I play in films.
Guest:Always.
Guest:It depends how good the original script is.
Guest:If it's absolutely brilliant, there's less embellishment to be done.
Guest:If it's a bit of a dog,
Guest:then there's a lot.
Marc:Do directors enjoy you doing that?
Guest:They are rightfully nervous of it because I've heard a lot of actors do it unbelievably badly.
Guest:And you don't know where to look, especially if they're quite powerful actors.
Guest:And they say, wouldn't it be great if I said X?
Guest:And everyone's thinking, no, that would be absolutely awful.
Guest:But it's difficult.
Guest:But I do the scripted version as well.
Guest:And then on take three or four, without saying anything, I just do something different.
Guest:and sometimes you hear a laugh from the monitor, and you think, okay, well, that's good.
Guest:And I must say, they do quite often end up in the film, partly just because they're fresh.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And the camera loves fresh.
Guest:Anything that's not pre-rehearsed seems to go down very well and end up in the edit.
Guest:Did you do any formal training?
Guest:No, sir.
Guest:No?
Guest:I had an inferiority complex about it at one stage.
Guest:I ended up, it's a long story, but I ended up doing some theater at one point.
Marc:Early on?
Guest:Right.
Guest:I know nothing about theater.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I had these young friends who'd all been to the Royal Academy of Dramatic Art in London and knew how to protect their voices and move properly.
Guest:I knew nothing.
Guest:So I bought a book.
Guest:There was one called Voice and the Actor.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:The other was called Movement for Actors.
Guest:And I went and practiced these ludicrous exercises in the park and
Guest:And I remember, for instance, running backwards with my arms outstretched going, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Guest:Over and over again.
Guest:And it was only on about the fifth time I'd done that that I noticed there were some local boys watching, making rather rude signs at me.
Guest:Ha, ha, ha, ha, ha, ha.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Scrunchy nut.
Guest:Scrunchy nut.
Guest:they seem to have uh they seem to have stuck i mean you can still do well i mean i i sort of loved all that stuff i got quite enamored of actors and the way they prepare you know in the theater in those days there were still some real old timers yeah you know old-fashioned grease paint and did all that stuff long warm-ups yeah yes and then they would come into your dressing room
Guest:And they would say, hello, Hugh.
Guest:Hello, Christopher.
Guest:I notice you're in your underwear.
Guest:Christopher, do you have an erection?
Guest:But you see, all that was fine in those days.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Or are you just bulgy?
Guest:It was fine.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Pre me too.
Guest:You just took it on the chin, as it were.
Marc:It seems like those exercises were effective, though.
Marc:It seems like, you know, as ridiculous as they were, they gave you some sense of.
Guest:No, no, no, no.
Guest:I was really bad on the stage in those days.
Guest:My God.
Guest:There was one exercise about how to stand up properly on stage.
Guest:And it's quite important you don't slump.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Apparently, unbeknownst to me, I really overdid it.
Guest:And I went through a whole week of Lady Windermere's fan walking onto stage, literally leaning backwards, like I was arched backwards.
Guest:And it was other members of the cast had to come up to me and said, could you stop doing that?
Guest:I thought I was just being marvellous.
Marc:You thought you were doing it correctly.
Marc:This is what actors do.
Marc:So how did you become better at it?
Marc:Just by doing it?
Marc:Just by working with directors?
Marc:Because you're really good at it.
Marc:I mean, you put the work in.
Guest:I've definitely got better in the last few years, yeah.
Marc:Oh, just in the last few years, you think?
Guest:I was all right.
Guest:I had some talent, but my problem was self-consciousness, really.
Guest:And part of the answer, there's many answers, but the main answer for me has been don't do parts which are like me.
Guest:You know, the further away from me I get, the more of a mask I put on, the less self-conscious I am.
Marc:So do you think that the self-consciousness, how did that kind of manifest?
Marc:You never thought you were good?
Guest:Well, it's just if you get the average person off the street and say, right, I'm now going to push a camera into your face very slowly while 100 people watch.
Guest:Right.
Guest:millions of people around the world watch they get self-conscious or if you say to the average person on the street just walk towards me normally yeah they can't do it and no one can it's you get a very strange bouncy self-conscious walk yeah you go from doing something which is completely instinctive in your right brain to
Guest:using your left brain, which starts to think, how do I walk?
Guest:And suddenly you can't do it.
Guest:So this is the nightmare of self-consciousness.
Guest:Anyway, my way out is to not be me, to just be captured by someone else.
Marc:But it seems like when you look back on the past and the early roles that you have a certain amount of contempt for that guy.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:For you doing that?
Guest:Well, yeah, I mean, I was ludicrous doing proper theatre then.
Guest:But that is where I met.
Guest:That is where I met my friend Chris, who was equally bored
Guest:The one who had the bulgy underpants.
Guest:And that's when we started writing a silly show to do in the bar of the theater late at night.
Guest:And that was the beginning of our show.
Marc:And then when you get this call, at what stage are you sleeping on your brother's couch?
Marc:How far after?
Marc:The theater.
Guest:Well, during that time when I wasn't working.
Guest:Right.
Guest:I lived on my brother's floor.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:He had a nice flat because he was a banker.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And I always thought he liked having me there, but he recently revealed to me that he had been trying for four years to get me out.
Yeah.
Marc:Four years is a long time to have your brother sleeping on the floor.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:So when did it all turn around?
Marc:I mean, was it really – how many movies did it take?
Marc:What was the ivory movie that he made you go audition for?
Guest:Well, it was called Morris, or as it's known in America, Maurice.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And it was – it did well as, you know, critically and –
Guest:prizes were won at the Venice Film Festival and stuff like that.
Guest:And well, at least the other two actors, there were three main boys in it.
Guest:And the other two actors then had a very good phase of their career.
Guest:I had a fairly good phase, but it went downhill quite fast.
Guest:And then I was rescued many years later by four weddings and a funeral.
Marc:So that was your beginning.
Marc:And then you felt like you did.
Marc:So Rupert Graves was in that one.
Marc:Is that who?
Guest:Yeah, exactly.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:And you just you feel like you did OK, but then there was a lot of expectation and it didn't quite happen.
Guest:Well, no, not really.
Guest:I just I got offered some crap and I did all the crap because I thought, well, how lovely.
Guest:Here's money and here's money.
Guest:foreign location and pretty girls and i accepted everything where does the layer of the white worm fall in i'm very fond of that film that's great yeah of course it's a fucking trip yeah well people who take a lot of drugs do love it well ken russell's a wild man how about it must have been great he was he was a wild man and he was i mean he was very talented but he by that stage he was also very fond of
Guest:a good lunch let's just say yeah it was already a fairly wild film in the mornings yeah by the time he'd had a lunch with two bottles of wine it was really a different story and and you know his style of directing became ever more eccentric so he would say i remember there's a scene in that film where i have to pick up a big sword yeah and cut
Guest:a lady snake monster in half.
Guest:Right.
Guest:It didn't feel quite right.
Guest:And I said, Ken, this shot doesn't feel quite comfortable for me.
Guest:And his immortal words to me were, well, fuck how it fucking feels.
Guest:Do it how I fucking showed you, you cunt.
Guest:And that is not out of the classic directorial handbook.
Marc:Yeah, you got to be at it for a few years to have that kind of insight.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:That must have been, was that close to his last movie?
Marc:I wonder.
Guest:Yeah, close to, close to.
Guest:And I'm never really sure what he intended with that film because it's possible it was meant to be a serious horror film.
Guest:And then we had a read through the night before we started choosing and the cast laughed so hard with tears streaming down our face.
Guest:But I think at that point we thought we might hammer it up a bit.
Marc:And he didn't stop you.
Marc:So what are you going to do?
Marc:But it's like it's kind of amazing that you did like it looks like almost 10 movies before 44 weddings and a funeral.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Well, and lots of miniseries, really dodgy miniseries.
Guest:It was it was the on BBC.
Guest:No, they were.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:There was some American ones.
Guest:There was.
Guest:judith crances till we meet again oh yeah i don't know i was always for some reason a champagne baron an evil one yeah who stole the family champagne and sold it to the nazis and raped courtney cox my half sister and got whipped out of the house by michael york
Guest:I always had a little mustache.
Guest:You got to work with Michael York.
Guest:I mean, that's not nothing.
Guest:That's not nothing.
Marc:I just watched The Accident, that Joseph Losey movie with the Pinter script.
Marc:Yeah, yeah.
Marc:It's amazing how long that guy was around, huh?
Marc:And he was always sort of in movies.
Guest:Yeah, and a lovely man.
Guest:Is he?
Guest:And very, very good as Basil Exposition in the Austin Powers.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, Austin Powers.
Yeah.
Marc:Well, so you got cast as the evil, barren, rich guy thing, and you were pretty young.
Marc:And then all of a sudden it just shifts, and you're this romantic kind of... Well, things were started, even the miniseries were fizzling out by 1993.
Guest:I think they were a bit.
Marc:You weren't even 30 yet, right?
Guest:I was 30.
Guest:There were little bits that were all right, but it was fizzling.
Guest:And then suddenly...
Guest:The script arrives, yeah.
Guest:And I've told this story many times, but I'll tell it again, just in case anyone hasn't heard it.
Guest:it was so surprising to read a good script from my agent that I called up and I said, I think there's been a mistake.
Guest:You've sent me a good script.
Guest:The reason I did that is because about a year previously, they'd sent me Jerry Maguire and I'd said, I think it's a mistake here.
Guest:You've sent me a good script.
Guest:And they said, yes, I'm sorry.
Guest:That is a mistake.
Guest:Anyway, uh, four weddings was, uh, yeah, it was an audition and I went and,
Guest:The man who wrote it, Richard Curtis, hated me on site and didn't want me to do the film.
Guest:And the producer didn't want me to do the film.
Guest:But the man who was directing it, Mike Newell, thought there was something there.
Guest:And I got cast, and I was off on another detour.
Marc:Have you written a memoir yet?
Guest:No, sir.
Marc:When's that going to happen?
Guest:Well, I don't know, because half of me wants to do it, but half of me thinks...
Guest:They're a bit up one's own ass, aren't they?
Guest:I mean, it's a bit grand.
Marc:I guess, but it really seems that, you know, given your tone and the way you would approach the stories, it would be pretty entertaining.
Marc:It'd probably be fun to write.
Guest:Well, I try and go that way.
Guest:Did you ever read David Niven's autobiography?
Marc:No, no.
Marc:Is it great?
Guest:It's great.
Guest:The Moon's a Balloon.
Guest:In fact, there's two.
Guest:The Moon's a Balloon and then there's another one called Bring on the Empty Horses.
Guest:And those are great.
Guest:And he's not up his ass.
Marc:Yeah, no, I think there's probably a way to do it.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:So after four weddings, like, I didn't realize, because my memory, like, you've just sort of always been around, you know, in my life.
Marc:I'm sorry.
Marc:No, no, it's great.
Marc:I mean, you know, I watched, you know, The Undoing, and there's part of me, you know, seeing you in that and watching all of it, where I'm like, finally, now we really see him.
Marc:But...
Guest:Did you not see... I've done a few other really evil characters recently.
Marc:Yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:I know that's where you're going, but I was sort of... My point is that I didn't realize that after Four Weddings and a Funeral that...
Marc:You had only done that movie and you'd become this almost major presence in the world of celebrity and attention.
Marc:I remember I had to put it into context that when all that shit went down with you out here, you were new.
Marc:It wasn't like you'd done a million movies.
Guest:I was about to launch my first Hollywood film.
Guest:My timing was impeccable.
Marc:How deeply have you investigated the timing of that, you know, in terms of why you do certain things?
Marc:Do you do do you do that kind of self exploration?
Guest:Yeah, I mean, I've said this before.
Guest:My problem was that was my first Hollywood film.
Guest:And I'd just been to see it.
Guest:The film was about to come out a week or two after that.
Guest:And I had a bad feeling about it.
Guest:And I went to see a screening and everyone in it was brilliant.
Guest:But I was so atrocious that I was not in a good frame of mind.
Guest:And I had a I had a Ken Russell kind of lunch.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And one thing led to another.
Marc:So you're like, you know, I'm going to make a mess of this.
Guest:Well, no, I know deliberately God.
Guest:No, not deliberately at all.
Guest:No, I just was disappointed in myself.
Marc:And yeah.
Marc:And you wanted to make it worse.
Guest:I don't know.
Guest:I don't know what was going on.
Guest:I certainly did.
Marc:But, you know, you sort of weathered the storm.
Marc:Which movie were you talking about that you thought you were so bad in?
Marc:Sirens?
Marc:Well, no, no, no.
Marc:I wasn't bad in Sirens.
Marc:It was called Nine Months.
Marc:Oh, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah, yeah.
Marc:But you weathered the storm.
Marc:You kept going.
Marc:I mean, did you think it was over after that or what?
Guest:No, because the film did all right at the box office.
Guest:In fact, I think it did quite well.
Guest:And that's all Hollywood really cares about.
Guest:They don't care what you get up to as long as you make them money.
Marc:Not then they didn't.
Marc:Now it seems like, you know.
Guest:Well, yes, yes.
Guest:I think things are a bit different now.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:I mean, and also, like, I don't know.
Marc:I think the premium put on who the hell knows what's happening with show business.
Marc:It's a fucking disaster.
Guest:Why?
Guest:In what way is it a disaster?
Marc:Well, it just feels like, you know, the pressure of being a public person, even a minor public person, you know, is is daunting.
Marc:And it's, you know, at some point, especially now, you've got to wonder, like, you know, is this worth it?
Marc:You know, and it seems like you've fought that fight before, you know, valiantly against, you know, people who are, you know, the boundaryless, abusive press.
Marc:But it's just like you can't hide anymore from anybody can get through to you.
Guest:Well, yeah, there's that right.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Everyone's got a phone.
Guest:Everyone's a pap.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Everyone's tweeting about where you are, what you're doing.
Guest:It's crazy.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:So you couldn't misbehave.
Guest:I don't want to misbehave anymore.
Guest:I'm too old.
Guest:But thank God, because it's now it would be completely impossible.
Guest:Misbehavior of any kind.
Marc:Well, what sparked this?
Marc:I have no understanding.
Marc:Apparently, the British tabloid press, I don't know it.
Marc:I think it's bad here, but apparently it's horrendous there.
Guest:Yes, that's correct.
Guest:Funnily enough, I've just been sent a whole lot of information about how it wasn't just my cell phone messages that were being sent.
Guest:It was also my landline.
Guest:It was my home line for years and years.
Guest:They were listening and my medical records and my car had bugs put in it so that they knew where I was.
Guest:And, you know, you just found this out.
Guest:Yeah, I knew some of it, but I didn't know it for sure.
Guest:But a lot of the guys who did this work, private investigators hired by tabloid newspapers, are now coming over to our side.
Guest:You know, I've got a sort of campaign group or a part of it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:And they now, they're so pissed off.
Guest:that the editors, senior executives, and the owners of these newspapers have got away scot-free while some of these foot soldiers have gone to jail, that they're now coming over to our side and spilling the beans.
Guest:Really?
Guest:And it's, apart from it being sort of fascinating and
Guest:It's also quite heartwarming and weird in a way.
Guest:I have a party every year with my campaign group for my birthday, and they love to invite these people who've previously done really terrible things to me, you know, bugged my car, stolen my medical records, or in one case, broken into my apartment, just took the door off the hinges while I was out and had a good sniff around.
Guest:And so they love to say at these parties, they say, now, Hugh, I don't think you've met Nobby.
Guest:He broke into your flat in 1999.
Guest:And I have to go, oh, hi, Nob.
Guest:Yeah, well, welcome.
Guest:Make yourself at home.
Guest:I think you know where everything is, you know.
Marc:But it's like you're sitting here saying this list of things and you're actually in a relatively authoritarian country, but those all sound like authoritarian actions.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:Well, that's almost true in the sense that they were allowed to do all this because government was so scared and remains so scared of those newspapers.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:Because they have the power to make or break politicians' careers that no one ever went after them.
Guest:So the police were instructed to look the other way while all this was going on.
Guest:And that is why my group campaigned for a big public inquiry led by a judge to really uncover all the dirt and that we did get it.
Guest:And it was done.
Guest:And he made recommendations.
Guest:And then the government, under pressure from these newspapers, said they found a way not to put it into law.
Guest:So really, we're sort of back to square one.
Guest:It's just... Britain is run by four or five newspaper owners.
Guest:People often say, you know, Americans I meet, they say, so what do you think of the present prime minister?
Guest:It's kind of irrelevant.
Guest:They are just puppets chosen by Rupert Murdoch and the Barclay brothers and...
Guest:Really?
Guest:A couple of them.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:These are the people.
Guest:It's an oligarchy.
Guest:It's four very, very powerful newspaper owners run Britain.
Marc:And none of them like you.
Guest:Well, no, I would be one of their first public enemies because I've, yeah, I've spoken up against them.
Marc:Well, I mean, didn't you – but you've had some success, right, in making them pay.
Guest:Yes, I've won court cases because in our authoritarian regime or our murdocracy or whatever you want to call it, one of the things that's still free is the courts.
Guest:They haven't got to the judges yet.
Guest:So you can win cases against them, but they will punish you for that.
Marc:And how did they punish you?
Guest:What appalling –
Guest:Editorial treatment.
Guest:You know, you will be taken to pieces, shredded as a warning.
Guest:Not just a warning to you not to do it again, but a warning to anyone else.
Guest:Do not ever criticize us or point out that we're our widespread...
Marc:illegalities and law-breaking holy shit it's fucking terrifying you know i don't even have that you know like i i here you know just dealing dealing what we've been through presidentially and and what's going on here i i mean i know there's you know outlets and propaganda but like it seems so cut and dry you know what's going on there in terms of their control of things we don't we don't have that here i mean they're they're separate stations but it's not everybody's brain addled and terrified
Guest:Well, it has changed a little here because of social media now.
Guest:Before social media really took off, they really had a stranglehold of public opinion.
Guest:And if you have a stranglehold on public opinion and can control it, then you can control politicians, you can control everything.
Guest:But now people have the capability to push back a little via social media.
Guest:Big untruth can be put right on social media if you have a loud enough voice on that.
Marc:Well, that's good, I guess.
Marc:Yes, I guess.
Marc:Do you do you live in England still?
Marc:Yeah, you do.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:You never thought to to leave because, I mean, I talked to Kate Winslet recently and I mean, she basically left.
Marc:Did she?
Marc:Where's she living now?
Marc:She was in New York for a while.
Marc:I guess she's back there.
Marc:But I think after Titanic, she went to New York for years.
Marc:uh she got that type of attention very young and it didn't seem as abusive or intrusive as yours but i mean she knew that it was something that she didn't necessarily want to live with yeah well i don't blame her when did you uh like you've got a bunch of kids right yes hundreds that's when did that start happening remarkably late in life i had my first child at 51 really
Guest:And now I'm 60 and I have children going down from nine to three.
Marc:And when did you get married?
Marc:About three years ago.
Marc:You just got married three years ago?
Marc:Like, look, I'm 57.
Marc:Yeah, I guess I was 57 when I got married.
Marc:Are you married?
Marc:No, I'm not married anymore.
Marc:I don't have any kids either, but I've been married a couple of times.
Marc:So wait, you had kids before you were married or were two different people?
Guest:I had...
Guest:Most of my kids before I was married, and I've had, I think, one since.
Marc:And what was the big life change?
Marc:Did you not want to have kids originally, or you just never found the time or the person?
Guest:I don't know, really.
Guest:I think most men have a fear of what having a child will do to their lifestyle.
Guest:Sure.
Guest:And then other men will give them a lecture and say, no, you don't understand.
Guest:It's so wonderful.
Guest:It completes you as a man.
Guest:And you think, oh, piss off.
Guest:But actually, it turns out those smug people are not entirely wrong.
Guest:It has been absolutely lovely.
Guest:And it's been lovely being married, too, which I really never expected.
Marc:Well, I mean, you know, you're older.
Marc:So, I mean, you know, after a certain point, all those things that were important when we were younger really start to lose their meaning.
Guest:There's that.
Guest:But also, if you just happen to get lucky and find the right person.
Guest:You know, I'm married to an amazing person.
Guest:The person who's my best friend.
Guest:And I mean, I can't believe the cliches that are pouring from my lips, but it's it's nice.
Guest:We have dinner together every night and, you know, I look forward to it, which is just bizarre.
Marc:Is it?
Marc:But it's bizarre in a good way, right?
Marc:This is not a detour.
Marc:This is where you landed in the in the good life.
Marc:Exactly.
Marc:What does she do?
Marc:Is she in the business?
Guest:She's had many jobs.
Guest:She was in ESPN.
Guest:She made sports promos and things.
Guest:And now she's just swamped by children.
Marc:And how do you think it changed your approach to life?
Guest:More cliches are about to pour from my mouth.
Guest:But it's very nice suddenly when you're not the most important person anymore.
Guest:It's actually strangely soothing and relaxing.
Guest:and a relief you feel better about yourself to genuinely care about someone else i mean you know i you properly love your children and you want to look after them and and i think it makes you you know i talked earlier about hairy chests it gives you a hairier chest you you you think yeah well i took care of my kids today and i loved them and and of course it's absolutely delightful being loved back so it does uh so it does complete you as a man
Guest:Look, I'm making myself vomit, but it sort of does a bit.
Marc:Vulnerabilities are difficult, isn't it?
Marc:But in terms of what you were saying earlier about avoiding yourself, it was always a relief in terms of the roles you chose.
Marc:Now it seems like you're fairly comfortable with yourself, despite, you know, being cliches around fatherhood.
Marc:But how is it?
Marc:Do you feel it's made a difference in how you work?
Guest:Yes, I think it has made me better at acting.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:I'm just less of a shrill.
Guest:narcissist, golf addict, which I was when I was a bachelor.
Marc:What addict?
Guest:Golf addict.
Guest:I was a really serious golf addict for about 12 years to the point of insanity.
Guest:And now I can access all kinds of things in my acting, you know, real proper love.
Guest:And that's very useful.
Marc:Oh, man, I never thought about it like that.
Marc:Because I guess you can't really fake that, can you?
Guest:Well, I faked it for years in all those romantic comedies.
Guest:Right, right.
Guest:Now I feel it.
Guest:And whereas in the old days, if the scene required, say, crying, I just said, well, that's a question.
Guest:Forget it.
Guest:Now you can't stop me crying.
Guest:They have to ask me not to.
Guest:I do a scene where I have to say to the waitress, could I have a cappuccino?
Guest:I burst into tears and they say, well, maybe not in this scene, Hugh.
Guest:One of the things that's made me sad with the undoing was that there's two or three occasions where I genuinely cried and in the right kind of scene.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And the reaction of Twitter, which I was reading while this was being broadcast.
Guest:Never.
Guest:He's terrible at crying.
Guest:That's rubbish.
Guest:That's not real crying.
Guest:And it bloody was.
Yeah.
Guest:Maybe I've just got a really unattractive cry face.
Guest:Anyway, I'll never cry again.
Marc:You will.
Marc:But I mean, I think people have built up, you know, expectations or judgments or some sort of relationship with you over, you know, the last 30 years.
Guest:Yeah, I think you're right.
Marc:You know what I mean?
Marc:So they that's I mean, I think that's the weirdest part about being, you know, a movie star or somebody as big as you in the world.
Marc:Cultural mind is that, you know, people have a relationship with you that's got nothing to do with who you are.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Now, it's a bit late to be attempting to be a serious character actor because I know there's vast baggage with me.
Marc:That is not the point I was making.
Marc:No, put the fault on the people that think they know you, but don't.
Marc:All right.
Marc:You're doing good work.
Marc:All right.
Marc:So like, yeah, and I did, I did like the undoing and, and I've interviewed Nicole.
Marc:She's like much different than I thought she was.
Marc:And I found her to be very entertaining and, and, and,
Guest:candid and charming and funny it must be was it good to work with her yes and i've always liked her i you know brits get on very well with australians yeah we invented them really yeah by throwing them out yeah yeah we throw them out so i've always i you know i've known her socially for decades and i've always liked her yeah as you said she's a good egg
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:When you act with when you act with people, I mean, do you because as you get older and you have this new vulnerability, do you connect better when you're doing a scene and all that stuff?
Marc:Do you find that you're able to kind of show up for them better?
Guest:Yeah, maybe, maybe, maybe.
Guest:I mean, nothing can ever be as frightening as Meryl Streep, which I who I had to work with and Florence Foster Jenkins.
Guest:so although nicole was intimidating she's got hostas and stuff and does very serious acting yeah nothing can ever frighten me as much as that but you held your own well i tried did my best
Guest:I had my emotion tape or my emotion playlist, which really helps.
Marc:Oh, that's good.
Marc:So now this one, you're playing a bad guy.
Marc:Is there a plan?
Marc:Do you ever see yourself doing something like that's directly relatable to the life you're living right now?
Guest:Like a father, a warm sort of- Well, the undoing was sinisterly close to the life I live.
Guest:he was an upper east side dad with a kid in a private school and who goes to fundraisers and all that uh and that's me in london boy that turn in that movie like i knew it was coming but when it came i was like holy shit yeah really well i had to warn my wife i said look i did have a plan to play this as a character but in the end um the director wanted me to play it
Guest:closer to me so i've done that in fact it's sinisterly close to me and i you know don't be alarmed and how'd you take that
Guest:She loves the film.
Guest:She does.
Guest:The more evil I am, the more I arouse her.
Guest:So that's partly why I'm doing all these villains, to keep her entertained.
Marc:Yeah, to know how the role-playing goes later.
Guest:She is utterly revolted by the characters I played in those romantic comedies.
Guest:She's a Swedish girl from the northern woods where men are men.
Guest:So the idea of some blinking, stuttery man who's in love is utterly repellent to her.
Marc:Man, you found the right person.
Marc:She's taking you the next step, Hugh.
Guest:I'm still nothing like Manly enough for her.
Guest:Her brothers are these huge, good-looking beasts who never speak.
Guest:It's uncool to speak if you're from the north part of Sweden.
Guest:I never shut up.
Guest:My wife has caught me, especially during lockdown, watching The Sound of Music by myself and really enjoying it and singing along.
Guest:These were difficult moments for a northern Swede.
Marc:That's hilarious.
Marc:That's what you have to be ashamed of being caught doing in your house.
Guest:Yeah, but I really love The Sound of Music.
Guest:I was in it once.
Guest:I was Brigitte von Trapp, one of the daughters.
Guest:Really?
Guest:Because I went to an old boys' school.
Guest:So when we did the sound of music, you know, boys had to play girls roles.
Guest:In fact, from, for many years, I played nothing but girls roles.
Guest:So I've always been so very sympathetic towards actresses.
Guest:I know what the life's like.
Marc:And, and do you like other musicals or is that the one?
Guest:I do like musicals.
Guest:I can't beat about the bush.
Guest:I like them.
Marc:Have you, have you, have you ever wanted to do one as an adult?
Guest:Well, I do a musical number at the end of Paddington too.
Guest:Uh,
Guest:which i thoroughly enjoyed i'm not sure it's the most butch moment in cinema history but it's a good moment
Guest:Do you want to do any stage work as this character actor that you are now?
Guest:Well, I would certainly do a short run.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:But also I would have to wrestle with that problem I mentioned earlier of when the audience laughs, I'm so thrilled I laugh too.
Marc:You think you still got that?
Marc:Did you ever meet Christopher Plummer?
Marc:No, I wish I had.
Marc:I thought you might have.
Marc:I figure like in England, everybody meets everybody eventually.
Yeah.
Guest:Yes.
Guest:I never met him.
Guest:I don't know where he was hiding.
Guest:Maybe he didn't live in England.
Marc:Well, this has been a very fun talk.
Marc:Have you had a nice time?
Guest:Yes, Mark.
Guest:Thank you very much.
Marc:Did you work today, by the way?
Guest:No, today was a day.
Guest:Well, I prepared.
Guest:An actor prepared today.
Marc:Yeah?
Marc:What'd you do to prepare?
Marc:Just to go over the script?
Guest:Ridiculous detail I go into.
Guest:I write these long biographies of character and
Guest:Do you?
Guest:Why is he doing this?
Guest:Why is he saying that?
Guest:Really?
Guest:And then, of course, a lot of what else might he say?
Guest:And I write all these alternative lines in the margin.
Marc:Really?
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:So you create a backstory for all the people?
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Huge, huge backstory.
Guest:Mushrooms.
Guest:So everything.
Guest:If it says he combs his hair, you think, well, why does he comb his hair?
Guest:Why doesn't he use a brush?
Guest:And how long has he used a comb?
Guest:And was it his mother?
Guest:And let's talk about his mother.
Guest:What was his mother like?
Guest:And how much did he love her?
Guest:And did she drink and all that?
Guest:And I don't know.
Guest:I don't know if it makes any difference to the final performance, but I feel like it might do.
Guest:And it certainly helps my nerves.
Guest:Because the waiting to act is absolutely miserable and tormenting.
Guest:And I feel that if I fill it with activity and rehearsal and study, I'm a bit less nervous.
Marc:And when you are in scenes, what do you do with all that information?
Marc:Do you just assume that it's in there and you let it go?
Guest:Let it go, let it go, let it go.
Guest:Although occasionally, and I always think this is a good test of...
Guest:whether you've really captured your character or not yeah when the scene has finished or when there's a silence i believe one should know what to say next that you would improvise completely instinctively the next line because you know your character so well how they speak how they think and i i like to try and get myself to that point
Marc:Well, that's helpful for me.
Marc:I mean, I like, I, that's impressive.
Marc:I, I never like, cause I noticed when I talk to actors, everyone's got their own way of, of making it work for them, their own set of habits and tools.
Guest:Yeah.
Marc:But this stuff, like outside of just making you, you know, by the time better, it kind of, it makes you go a lot deeper with the possibilities of those moments.
Marc:Right.
Marc:So, cause you like to improvise.
Guest:It turns out, it turns out that this is Stanislavski, you know, um,
Guest:In fact, he did write An Actor Prepares, didn't he?
Marc:Yeah, I think so.
Marc:Yeah.
Guest:And it's all that.
Guest:And the method.
Guest:And it's just endless combing through and through and through and through and through.
Guest:Making more detail, more detail, more detail.
Guest:Who are they?
Guest:Where do they come from?
Guest:All that.
Guest:Man, now I've got to do it.
Guest:So that's quite serious act of prep.
Guest:But I think it's very, very important, I think, to simultaneously keep an eye on what's entertaining.
Guest:And will this actually interest people and entertain them or make them laugh or move them?
Guest:Because if you're just...
Guest:Uh, if it's just a sort of religious process where you were just trying to be true to your character, it can be a bit boring.
Marc:Interesting.
Marc:So you're aware of that, that, you know, that you want to be engaging and entertaining and that if you do a scene where you don't feel that that's in there, you'll want to redo it.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Yeah.
Guest:Huh.
Guest:But if you have to choose one, the entertaining, uh, instinct or the truth instinct, uh,
Guest:And on film, you're better to go with the truth one always, because they can make it entertaining by editing, music, lighting, all those kinds of things.
Guest:They can make it entertaining.
Guest:And there's no coming back from something which is false.
Guest:You might think, oh, I was terribly entertaining in that scene.
Guest:But if you were false, the audience knows it, they don't like it, and it dies.
Guest:But if you're real, it's surprising, even if you're not hitting any of the comedy beats in the classic sort of way.
Guest:And I often watch actors and think, oh, you're killing the jokes with your serious bloody acting.
Guest:But actually, in film, very often the joke survives their serious acting better than it survives me, my perfect timing.
Marc:Right.
Marc:And how aware of your face are you?
Guest:Well, if you're aware of your face, you're dead meat.
Marc:Oh, yeah.
Marc:Because I talked to Jeff Daniels once.
Marc:He's like, you've got to learn how to work your face because all film acting is like 70 percent of it is face.
Guest:It's true.
Guest:It's awful.
Guest:The things I dread when they say we're just going to push in slowly on your face for this reaction shot, you know, in courtroom scenes.
Guest:And this is this pushing could last two bloody minutes.
Guest:And within the first 15 seconds, you think, this is okay.
Guest:I'm in character here, and I'm thinking thoughts, and I'm emoting.
Guest:And then within 25 seconds, he's all thinking, but my jaw's gone funny.
Guest:It's gone funny.
Guest:It's sticking out.
Guest:No, it's sticking out more.
Guest:My eyes are bulging, and then you're gone.
Guest:That's it.
Marc:There goes that close up.
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Well, I enjoy your work, and I appreciate you talking to me.
Guest:All right.
Guest:Well, thanks, Mark.
Marc:Take care of yourself, man.
Guest:Yeah, yeah.
Guest:All the best.
Marc:That was Hugh Grant.
Marc:The show that he's nominated for the SAG Award is in The Undoing, as Jonathan in The Undoing.
Marc:You can watch that on HBO Max.
Marc:Go to ParamountPlus.com and try it for free so you can watch Star Trek, Picard.
Marc:I'm going to let you in on something, folks, here at the end, if you're still listening.
Marc:For my entire life, I've been saying Star Trek.
Marc:Star Trek.
Marc:And every time I've recorded this ad in the past, Brendan has had to tell me that I need to do it again because I did it again.
Marc:I've said Star Trek my entire life.
Marc:Not Star Trek.
Marc:Star Trek.
Marc:It's been Star Trek my entire life.
Marc:So saying Star Trek is new to me.
Marc:There you go.
Marc:There's a little secret.
Marc:Am I ashamed?
Marc:Yeah.
Marc:Am I going to be okay?
Marc:Yep, I am.
Marc:I'm going to play some guitar right now.
Guest:.
.
.
.
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guitar solo
Yeah.
Marc:Boomer lives and Monkey and La Fonda and the Cat Angels are coming down.
Marc:They're coming down.
Marc:They're coming down.
They're coming down.
you