Hugh Grant: Acted for Fame and Money, Has Always Hated Acting

Hugh Grant claimed he only went into acting ‘to be famous and make a lot of money’ and has ‘never loved it’.

The British actor, 65, surprised Justice Smith, who he starred alongside in Dungeons And Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, when he made the candid confession. 

Justice, 30, revealed Hugh’s true feelings on acting as he appeared on Twin Peaks star Kyle MacLachlan’s What Are We Even Doing? podcast last week – where he was asked if he had got along with the Love Actually star while filming together.

‘I did. Oh, I love Hugh,’ Justice said. ‘When I worked with him, I was like, “Hugh, you know, do you still love what you do? Do you still love this?”

‘And he was just like, “No.” He said, “I’ve never loved it.” He’s like, “I just wanted to be famous and make a lot of money.” And I said, “Really?” He said, “Yeah”.

He added: ‘He is so funny. And he’s like, “I’ve always hated the acting part of it”. And I was like, “Oh.” But he said it with such sincerity.’

Justice was so ‘stuck’ on the conversation, he brought it up with Rosamund Pike while filming Now You See Me: Now You Don’t to get her take on whether Hugh was being serious or ‘just British’.

He recalled: ‘She’s like, “No, I’m pretty sure he’s just British.” I’m like, “Are you sure?” I think ’cause it stuck with me. 

‘I was like, “Oh, I guess you can be a really good actor and just want to like just do it for the fame and money”.’

Both host Kyle and his guest agreed Hugh is a ‘perfectionist’ and pushes himself hard with his work.

Kyle said: ‘Here’s the thing about Hugh that I think I ’cause I got a vibe about him.

‘I’ve known Hugh for a long time, and he has the same spiel that he does. I think the thing that is so challenging for him is that he’s such a perfectionist, and he takes it so seriously.

‘It’s like everything, he wants it to be perfect. You know, he’s got, I think, control issues, but I feel like it’s the torture of that experience as opposed to kind of letting it all go and just, you know, doing what he does. 

‘But I got to believe that he finds joy in it.’

Justice ultimately concluded that Hugh’s proclamation was a sign of just how great an actor he is.

He said: ‘I would hope that he was joking, but also that British humour is so dry and like sometimes hard to permeate that I don’t know ’cause he was so sincere.

‘Then I watch him…he does the work, he puts a lot of effort into what he does. We were working on a silly comedy together, and you could tell he really cares about it.

‘He’s such a good actor, he’ll make you believe that he doesn’t.’

Earlier this year, Hugh condemned schools for indulging pupils’ screen addictions – as the actor called for laptops and tablets to be barred from classrooms.

The Hollywood star and father-of-five made the call at a campaigning event at a school in west London, as he also criticised education chiefs for restrictions on children playing outside.

Notting Hill and Four Weddings And A Funeral star Hugh accused schools of making ‘pathetic’ calls on what their students were allowed to do.

And he described himself as ‘another angry parent fighting the eternal, exhausting and depressive battle with children who only want to be on a screen’. 

He took part in the move organised by group Close Screens, Open Minds – appearing alongside US psychologist Dr Jonathan Haidt.

Hugh, who has been married since 2018 to Swedish TV producer Anna Eberstein, lambasted classroom Chromebooks for pupils as ‘the last f***ing thing they need’.