Hugh Grant has revealed which of his films Quentin Tarantino told him is his favourite, and it is a surprising choice.
After establishing himself as the king of romcoms in the ‘90s, Grant has veered towards the dark side in recent years, from his villainous turn in Paddington 2 to his current embrace of full-on horror in Heretic.
But it is a ‘00s deep cut that appealed to the Pulp Fiction director. As Grant has recalled in an interview with Letterboxd, the 2007 musical romantic comedy Music And Lyrics particularly tickled his fancy.
“He does love that film,” Grant said. “I had this weird experience that some do in London: this sweaty person pushed his way through the crowd to me, and it was Quentin Tarantino. And to my enormous surprise, he said, ‘Oh, man, I love Music and Lyrics’.
“He said he watched it on a plane, and was so disappointed that the plane landed before the film ended, that he had to quickly go and order it from Blockbuster or something.”
The film saw Grant playing a faded ‘80s popstar who has a second stab at success when he starts writing with a younger lyricist, played by Drew Barrymore. Directed by Marc Lawrence (Two Weeks Notice, Did You Hear About The Morgans?), the film was a box office success, drawing nearly $150million globally.
In other Grant news, he recently quipped that his idea of perfect happiness is “drinking a pint of London Pride while munching Twiglets and reading about Colin Firth having a critical and box office catastrophe.”
In Heretic, Grant plays Mr. Reed, a mysterious and untrustworthy man who answers the door to two young female Mormon missionaries who want to convert him to the church.
In a four-star review, NME said: “East and Thatcher are convincing as the Mormons who made a wrong turn and Grant is a loquacious delight in a role that could so easily have been a wad of demonic clichés. Lovers of Bridget Jones’s Diary always knew he was a cad but this is something else entirely. He’s never less than devilishly plausible and meticulous with every glance, grin and furrowed brow.”
Grant spoke to NME during promotion for the film, where he recalled singing Radiohead’s ‘Creep’ in the film: “I don’t do it very well. I think it’s a very difficult song to sing. I researched it a bit and they kind of hate it. One of them sketched it off, they recorded it and they never really bothered to put on proper lyrics [that] they liked. Everyone went mad for it and called for it at every Radiohead concert. Very difficult to sing. I didn’t crack that one.”