Hugh Grant On His New Role As A ‘Cheeky Little Killer’ And Why He Loves Going Dark

This film was a great reminder of how far charm can get you in life. Hugh, you are quite charming and known for being quite charming so I wanted to know if there have been any occasions you’ve managed to charm your way in or out of just for fun

Hugh: I’m not as bad as my brother, he’s made a fortune in banking from just charming everyone, but he can’t stop – it’s like a nervous tick. So wherever we go, the one that brings us a cup of coffee or the people you’re standing in the lift with, he has to charm them to death. He has to have them fall in with him and he does. But I often ask myself or ask him afterwards “You don’t really care about that person?” “Oh God no” – so it slightly runs in our family, but it’s fake.

Well, I guess that’s why you’re a great actor. You mentioned looking into serial killers and cult leaders, and this film touches on a lot of religious and ancient texts. Just how much research did you do into religion, or did you just go off the script? Because from the topics touched in the film, I can imagine that would take a long time.

Hugh: The older I get, the more nervous I get and one of the things that seems to help my nerves in the weeks and months leading up to filming is to do an enormous amount of work haha. So I go through the script with a very fine tooth comb. Why does he do that? Why does he say that? And how does that? And what does that tell us about his background about his parents, about his schooling, About what happened with his best friend, and this thing mushrooms. So I researched the killers, the cult leaders, and I did some work on the religious side as well although the the filmmakers, Scott (Beck) and Bryan (Woods) had kind of done all that fascinating stuff. I was lucky to be able to say it because I found it genuinely fresh and interesting what they’re saying about Christianity for instance.