Hugh Grant Signals End to Acting Career

[Khephra]

LONDON -- Hugh Grant says he's lost interest in acting and is heading into retirement. Grant, who plays heartthrob Daniel Cleaver in "Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason," was quoted Thursday by the Evening Standard's Metro magazine as saying film acting is a "miserable experience."

"It's so long and boring and so difficult to get right," Grant said.

"I am sort of semiretired," he said. "I keep thinking I'm going to write a brilliant script."

http://www.newsday.com/entertainment/news/wire/sns-ap-britain-hugh-grant,0,2548369.story?coll=sns-ap-entertainment-headlines

[Atillason]

1. "miserable experience"

Maybe if tried "acting" instead of playing the exact same character in every film that he is in he would feel better about the whole thing...

[aquart]

3. You have no idea how talented that man is.

There are actors who immerse in a character and are different every time, and then there are stars who are, essentially, exactly the same every time and people pay millions to see that.

To appear completely relaxed with lights on you and a hundred people looking on......there are tons of beautiful men. But a beautiful man who can relax on a set and remember his lines? Above rubies. And to have comic timing? We're talking pink diamonds. We're talking the great ones.

People used to say that Errol Flynn, who was exactly the same every time, couldn't act. Then one day Errol Flynn's son, Sean, made a movie. Oh, it was so apparent how talented Errol was, and that he had passed none of it to his handsome son. Sean was, in real life, the courageous adventurer that Errol play. Sean went to Viet Nam as a photographer and died there. But he couldn't act his way out of a paper bag.

Actors work their butts off. I remember standing in front of a director saying the same line for three hours. THREE HOURS! The line was "My real name is Sherlock Holmes." Turns out there is only one way to say that line and get a laugh. ONE. A million ways to say the line, but only one that automatically gets a laugh. One line. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over....think that's glamorous fun?

And I won't even go into the injuries.

[tjdee]

5. That is true.

Acting is very hard work.

But, there are some people who really suck at it, and Hugh Grant isn't one. All the really big stars just start playing "themselves" after a while, and if they don't, their movies flop. It's not really their fault. They want to branch out, moviegoers won't let them.

See: Julia Roberts in Mary Reilly, Meg Ryan in anything not comedic, etc.

[eleonora]

2. boohoo...poor baby

Retire, who gives a f*ck. BLEH!

[tjdee]

4. He wants to get married and settled.

(I've read that in other stories)
Poor thing.

I mean, he could just come to my house and everything would be fine!

He's very intelligent, if I remember correctly, he went to Oxford, or something...he's one of those who stumbled into acting. It's been a good living for him, but I'd imagine it's not his passion.

Not terribly sad, but I see where he's coming from.

[northernsoul]

6. I think Hugh's a talented actor, but a moron

I thought he turned in a very good performance in "About a Boy" (great movie, great soundtrack), but I also think he's one of the biggest F@#!!@#in' idjits who ever lived for cheating on Elizabeth Hurley!(tho' it must be admitted that she's let herself get a bit skanky in the past few years)

[AP]

7. Yeah, I got that signal when I saw him in 9 Months.

[fidgeting wildly]

8. Funny this should come up.

He was on a rerun of "Inside the Actor's Studio" just this morning. Someone asked him about this very thing. He said he always feels like he gets it just right in rehearsals, but when the cameras and lights come on, he fucks it up. He said (and I'm paraphrasing here) that he keeps acting because he's convinced that one day he'll actually get it right and show the world how good he really is. He seems to be really funny and self-deprecating in casual settings.

And he said in an interview recently (can you tell I'm a fan? :) ) that About A Boy is his only film that he can watch without wincing.

[Mojambo]

9. "Uh the Onion is at the door sir, they'd like a comment?"

I can't wait to see if they do something on this