Sassy, smiling, and smart- these are just some of the words that immediately strike your mind when you speak of Hugh Grant or whenever the famous Notting Hill actor’s name is spoken.
That said, there are usually two kinds of things you get to hear about the 50 -something British style icon. First, that he’s a wooden oaf, someone devoid of any useful facial expressions. It’s also alleged that he lacks the intensity you’d expect of a Hollywood A-lister.
And second that he’s quite the ladies man and that, Rom-Coms, a genre that he’s sort of made his own given his charming face and easy-going personality wouldn’t feel like one if it weren’t for him.
But guess what Hugh Grant himself feels about him and Rom-Coms, a partnership that has, over the years, quite simply blossomed with tons of films including the likes of Four Weddings and a Funeral, About A Boy, Notting Hill, Did You Hear About The Morgans, Music and Lyrics and many more.
To say that Hugh Grant’s very British wit quite simply charmed us over in all these highly re-watchable flicks would be offering an understatement.
He’s quick to crack a joke and even quicker to take a joke on himself. The mark of an unassuming star, you’d say?
The brooding intensity doesn’t belong to him. Nor does the sullen, betrayed look or somewhat condescending personality. In none of the Hugh Grant films would you see him deliver a cracker of an emotionally-scarred performance, the one that upholds the triumph of the underdog or signals the victory of the doomed.
It’s never that sort of thing for this Oxford graduate, someone who can play two sets of Tennis but doesn’t sweat, yet someone who amid a gathering of serene aristocrats can carry off a crumpled shirt!
It’s those handsome shades, stylish gait, the dimpled smile, and the classy, very upmarket Notting Hill-ish attires- picture the black denim and the sky blue shirt in the 90s epic romance- that belong to Hugh Grant.
To this day, the man who very candidly declared that “now, am too old for Rom-Coms, ” epitomizes a sense of masculinity that can’t really be explained or described in adjectives.
It’s the sort of heroism that we have hardly come to see nor allowed many to sweep us off our feet from. Hugh Grant’s personality rests in his constantly befuddled screen avatar, the bumbling upmarket charmer, the hero who’s very unlikely to rise as one, the flirtatious bloke, the wine aficionado who can chase girls with pig-tails inside a Starbucks.
That told, here’s what a man who’s romanced the best in show-biz, including none other than the likes of Julia Roberts, Sandra Bullock, Drew Barrymore said on himself and a genre he’s lent his grace to:
“I don’t get offered romantic comedies anymore,” Grant said. “And thank God. I’m too old. And it’s lovely to be doing some different stuff. I never particularly wanted or thought I was good at being a ‘leading man.’”