What People Who Worked With Hugh Grant Had To Say About Him

Throughout his extensive career as a comedic news reporter, Jon Stewart hosted many guests of all different backgrounds, careers, cultures, and beliefs. Of every person he ever encountered, though, he once admitted to Steven Colbert that Grant earned the title of worst guest on the show. 

Stewart recalled when the Love Actually star showed up on set to promote his film, Did You Hear About the Morgans, irritated at the clips the production team chose for the piece: 

[He was my least favorite guest], and we’ve had dictators on the show… He’s giving everyone sh*t the whole time, and he’s a big pain in the a**. 

Grant reportedly complained, “What is that clip? It’s a terrible clip.” To which Stewart responded, “Well, then make a better f*cking movie.” While Stewart said he'd “never” have Grant as a guest again, the actor later apologized on Twitter (now X) stating: 

Turns out my inner crab got the better of me with TV producer in '09. Unforgivable. J Stewart correct to give me kicking.

Although Grant made headlines for saying he “hated” filming Wonka, the film's director, Paul King, said he cast Grant precisely for his curmudgeonly qualities:

The Oompa Loompas don’t have any dialogue in the book, really, and the films, they’ve sort of got very little. But in the book they do have these very, very long songs - or they’re presented as songs, they’re poems… But they’re so funny, and I was reading them sort of trying to get a voice in my head, and they’re so sort of biting and sarcastic and scornful and incredibly funny, and Hugh’s voice just kept coming towards me.

When Grant made headlines for being caught participating in “lewd conduct” with a sex worker in 1995, Drew Barrymore reached out to the star to support him, despite having never met Grant in person. Years later the two discussed the letter, which Grant said cheered him up in a dark time, on Barrymore's show, with the host remarking:

That whole incident - I related in my own life… I think that whether it's an actor or politician or anything in-between, we expect people to be infallible, perfect, never flawed, and God forbid we do anything in our personal lives that we would like to remain personal - but we don't have that privilege at a certain point because the cat gets let out of the bag. I just had to reach out to you… I just appreciated you, and you were just the most charming human.

Barrymore, who later worked with Grant on Music and Lyrics, also revealed that the two once participated in a make-out session:

Barrymore: I don't think we've ever talked about this… I'd had a few drinks, and I walked in, and I ran into you, and instead of saying hello, I grabbed you by the collar, and I fully started kissing you…

Grant: It was really bizarre. I was very drunk as well, and I was with some very nice but not drunk studio executives from LA, and they were very surprised. Someone said, 'Oh, there's Drew Barrymore.' I get up to say hi, and then we make out for 10 minutes, and then I sit down again…

After Grant made headlines for calling her singing on Music and Lyrics “horrendous,” Barrymore insisted her co-star was a “hilarious, good human being,” elaborating:

If you know Hugh, like, that is his way of loving you… When he says that, I’m telling you, he is being absolutely funny. He doesn’t mean one negative thing about it.

Barrymore did admit it took some time to reconcile her “happy-puppy” energy with “grumpy” Grant, saying:

[I]t took me a second… I was like, oh, no. I love you. I want to love you. You’re not letting me love you. And then as I got to know him, I was like, I do love you. I love you for the real you.

Grant noted to the press in 2018 that he was under the impression that Robert Downey Jr. “hated” him while working on their 1995 film, Restoration:

[He hated] me. Hated me… He took one look at me and wanted to kill me… I don't know [why]. I was so hurt.

It seems he wasn't far off, as the Iron Man star had shared his true feelings regarding Grant years earlier after filming: 

I kinda think he's a jerk. Don't know, I just think he is. My personal experience with him is I think he's this kind of self-important, kind of, like, boring flash-in-the-pan [expletive] Brit… 

I just thought he was a d*ck, that's all. And I still do… You know, and that could be something that has to do with me, or it could just be that not everyone in this industry is someone I'd care to hang out with.

But by 2018, he was willing to give Grant another chance, as he tweeted: 

A lot has happened over two decades!… I respect how Mr. Grant has matured as an artist and voice against violations of privacy. Let’s break bread together soon @HackedOffHugh! #burythehatchet2018.

Grant also responded in kind, ending any feud once and for all.

When asked about the set environment of About a Boy, Toni Collette admitted there were some aspects of filming she wasn't thrilled about, including Grant's apparent dissatisfaction with his career at the time:

I just felt ripped off. I was like, what? Everyone else is having fun here; I'm the suicidal lady. What the f*ck? But I knew it was a really great film. I really enjoyed working with [the directors] the Weitz brothers, with little Nick [Nicholas Hoult], who's so beautiful. I love him. He's so talented. I love watching him grow and become who he is and get better and better at what he does. He's such a sweetheart.

And with Hugh [Grant], at the time, Hugh was so jaded. He just did not enjoy filmmaking at all. He found it torturous, and now I watch him and I can tell he's fallen in love with it again. Watching him dance in Paddington 2 - honestly, when I saw that, it made me so happy.

During an interview on his show, Graham Norton sat with Grant and Meryl Streep (who worked together on Florence Foster Jenkins) to discuss Grant's off-screen relationships with some of the actresses he'd worked with over the years. While Grant admitted that he could find something irritating about each of them - and that for some, the feeling was mutual - Streep reeled the conversation in by making a quick joke, then commiserating with him about nerves: 

Grant: [Drew Barrymore] made the mistake of giving me notes. Which, how would you take that? You're acting with someone and they…

Streep: Actually, I took them very well, didn't I?… I'm kidding.

Norton: Meryl, I've heard you speaking about how you are now sort of aware of the effect you have on a cast.

Streep: Oh, yeah. I heard you say you [Grant] were terrified. You weren't really terrified, because the first day I worked with you, I forgot my lines. 

Grant: I loved that. That was the highlight of my year. Here's an interesting question I've meant to ask you all these months and never dared. Are you ever nervous? 

Streep: You did ask me that!… Every day you asked me that. ‘Are you nervous? Are you nervous?’ No, for the second week, I'm not nervous… But when we got up at Carnegie Hall, I was shaking. It was terrifying. And that was late in the shoot. And when I had to, you know… at the end… I was very nervous. 

Grant: Well, that's not easy. 

Streep: No, I get nervous. I get nervous on chat shows, chat shows are very hard.