Richard Curtis has revealed he didn’t want Hugh Grant to be in Four Weddings and a Funeral – 30 years after the film became a massive hit.
Three decades after the movie’s premiere, the screenwriter said British actor Grant, then 32, was too ‘glamorous’ for the character he had in mind – instead wanting stars such as Jim Broadbent, Robbie Coltrane, or John Gordon Sinclair to play the leading part of Charles.
Meanwhile, the film’s producer Duncan Kenworthy has claimed Liz Hurly’s iconic safety pin dress at the UK premiere event was a leading factor in the film becoming so big – after the daring outfit appeared on the front page of newspapers for a week.
Hurly was in a long-term relationship with actor Grant at the time, getting together in 1987 and calling it quits in the year 2000.
Speaking to The Times, Curtis revealed his reasoning behind not desiring Grant for the starring role of the comedy-romance film. ‘I argued hard against Hugh Grant. I had in my mind a less glamorous person because I’m a very unglamorous person,’ he said.
Liz Curtis and Hugh Grant at the UK premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994
Huge movie hit Four Weddings and a Funeral came out 30 years ago in May 1994
Hugh Grant and Andie Macdowell starring in Four Weddings and a Funeral
The screenwriter said the team interviewed around 70 people for the role, but found it difficult to find someone with the ‘charm and wit’ needed to make the part work.
‘Hugh had it instantly. He gives the impression of being feckless and that he can’t act, but he worked so hard on every line,’ he said.
At the age of 32, Grant had claimed to be on the brink of quitting the acting profession, but was pleased by the script of Four Weddings after finding the protagonist funny.
Kenworthy, whose first time producing a film happened with Four Weddings, recalled how Grant brought in a recording of his best man speech at his brother’s wedding, which was ‘quite funny’.
Kenworthy added that the team wrote ‘wedding attire’ on the UK premiere invitation, with roughly 10 per cent coming in wedding dresses.
The producer recalled why Hurly’s bold choice of outfit became such an important part of the film’s success. ‘And then, of course, there was Liz Hurley’s dress, which was not a wedding dress – almost not a dress at all. That worked so well for us too because she was on the front page of newspapers for a week,’ he said.
Hurly’s famous dress – which features large golden safety pins and a slit down the side – remains iconic to this day.
Hurly was in a long-term relationship with Grant at the time, getting together in 1987 and calling it quits in the year 2000
Hurly and Grant at the UK premiere of Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994
Screenwriter Richard Curtis (pictured) revealed he didn’t want Hugh Grant to be in Four Weddings and a Funeral
Andie MacDowell, who played Carrie, recalled meeting Grant for the first time, saying she thought it was going to be ‘easy’ because of his charm.
And Anna Chancellor, who played Henrietta ‘Duckface’, said she still loves ducks and even had one as a pet – Daphne – who she rescued from a neighbour’s garden.
The actor added that her husband calls her Duckface, while her daughter, who tragically passed away aged 36 last year following a battle with leukaemia, called her ‘Ducky’.
Last year, the film’s writer Curtis said he was ‘stupid and wrong’ for joking about people’s size in his films after he was confronted by his daughter.
The director said he regrets much of his work and he was ‘unobservant’ and ‘not as clever’ as he should have been.
He added that he would never use the words ‘fat’ and ‘chubby’ again.
But he did defend himself by saying he had written a gay couple into 1994 film Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Curtis said he felt ‘stupid and wrong’ for thinking he couldn’t write about those parts because of his ‘very undiverse school’ and ‘bunch of university friends’.
He said: ‘I felt as though me, my casting director, my producers just didn’t look outwards.’
