Hugh Grant Says He Was ‘Pretentious’ in College: ‘Nothing Much Has Changed’
Hugh Grant has enjoyed decades of success on the big screen. And yet, the actor remains particularly honest and self-deprecating about himself, his work, and the business itself. In 2019, he even opened up about the regrets he has about his career and, in particular, his focus on romantic comedies throughout the 1990s and 2000s. But recently, Grant took an honest look at who he was during his college days, deeming himself “pretentious.”
Hugh Grant has led countless hit romantic comedies
Although Grant began to work steadily in film in the late 1980s, it wasn’t until the mid-1990s that he landed his big break. 1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral paired him with co-star Andie MacDowell as well as screenwriter Richard Curtis, with whom he’d collaborate several more times over the years. The very next year, Grant starred in Sense and Sensibility and Nine Months.
But much of his biggest hits do run back to Curtis. The screenwriter cowrote Bridget Jones’s Diary and its 2004 sequel, Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason, both featuring Grant opposite Renee Zellweger. Curtis also wrote 1999’s Notting Hill starring Grant and Julia Roberts. He even wrote and directed Love Actually, which features Grant among its ensemble cast as the Prime Minister of the United Kingdom.
Hugh Grant admitted he was ‘pretentious’ at Oxford University
Grant readily admits he has often leaned on his familiar on-screen persona, especially in his romantic comedy films. But the actor – who clearly has a sense of humor about himself and his career – revealed in a recent Wired Autocomplete Interview what he was like during his days at the University of Oxford, where he studied English literature.
“Fat lot of good that did me,” he said of his major. “But I didn’t do much of that towards the end. I became a socialite really. I went to parties and was pretentious.”
In response, Chris Pine – who presented the questions – quipped, “Nothing much has changed.” And Hugh Grant immediately replied, “Yeah, exactly,” acknowledging that perhaps he still has a bit of a pretentious streak. That would certainly explain why fans are divided on his recent red carpet interview at the 2023 Oscars, during which Grant was less than eager to engage with ABC host Ashley Graham.
Hugh Grant appears in a pair of new movies in 2023
Grant’s Wired discussion not only includes Pine but also Michelle Rodriguez. The three stars share the screen in the 2023 release Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves. The new movie – directed by Game Night filmmakers Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley – is the latest attempt to launch a film franchise based on the popular tabletop role-playing game.
In addition, Grant – who received some awards attention for his role in the HBO limited series The Undoing – recently appeared opposite Jason Statham, Aubrey Plaza, Josh Hartnett, and Cary Elwes in Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre. That film was directed by Guy Ritchie and released in theaters in the United States on March 3, 2023.
