Hugh Grant has gone through a bit of a change in his career over the decades. Who can forget his charming British self in a series of rom-coms through the ‘90s and ‘00s? Well, nowadays, he’s expanded his acting credits quite a bit, and the actor credits “Cloud Atlas” for that.
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Speaking to Vanity Fair, Hugh Grant talked about a dark time in his career. After 2009’s film, “Did You Hear About the Morgans?” bombed, the actor was at a career low point. However, that’s when he got the call to show up in “Cloud Atlas.” And being able to show off new angles to his acting changed the course of his whole career.
“I was completely marooned,” Grant explained. “The Wachowskis offered me just a few small little parts in ‘Cloud Atlas,’ and to be honest, I was probably only offered that because some of their international distributors had said, ‘We need some more recognizable names. Cram someone recognizable in here.’ They would’ve thought, ‘Oh, we don’t really want Hugh Grant, but we’ll give him some tiny parts.’ They will deny that but I think it’s partly what happened.”
After appearing in “Cloud Atlas,” Grant admits that he felt rejuvenated.
“I thought, Oh yeah, I used to really enjoy doing characters—in fact, I almost used to enjoy acting,” he added. “I started out doing silly voices, odd people, making people laugh at university, and then doing this comedy show in London. It was doing characters. Then through sheer chance, maybe because of the way I looked, I got drawn into the leading romantic hero. It went fine, but it’s not what I think I’m best at—partly because it’s less fun.”
There’s no denying that even though “Cloud Atlas” was far from a major hit, Grant’s career has seen an improvement in the types of roles he’s being offered. He’s shown up in films such as “Paddington 2,” “The Gentlemen,” and “Wonka.” Over on TV, the same thing happened, as he’s shown up in “A Very English Scandal” and “The Undoing.”
So it stands to reason that Grant is correct in his appreciation of what “Cloud Atlas” did for his career. You can see him continue his hot streak of interesting roles in the forthcoming horror film, “Heretic,” which debuts on November 15.