Edinburgh Student Newspaper – May, 2004

By Joe Jackson

“My obsession is their refusal to take responsibility for their actions… It seems that nobody ever has the guts to stand up and say “I’m sorry, I fucked up.”

Richard E Grant has spent years working with some of the best in the business, but Joe Jackson discovers there’s more to him than just swigging lighter fluid.

Casting an eager eye over the career of Richard E Grant, I suspect I’m guilty of a common misconception. Like most people, I remember him best for his sublimely comic performance in the 1987 classic film, Withnail and I, but of course, such successes don’t come from nowhere. First of all, Grant had been acting with amateur theatre groups since he was a young child growing up in Swaziland. Furthermore, since Withnail, his success as an actor has continued. Grant has amassed a hugely impressive collection of credits, playing a multitude of roles on the big and small screen. He’s worked with some of the biggest names in the industry, including acclaimed directors Robert Altman and Martin Scorcese, and actors such as Daniel Day Lewis and John Malkovich. So when I ask him about THAT film, I’m a little worried he’ll groan with agony. However I’m pleasantly surprised; he really doesn’t mind reminiscing.

“It remains something I remember with incredible affection – for the lifelong friendships it has created, for the kind of people who continue to connect with the film and for the best dialogue any actor could ever wish to speak. No matter where I have travelled, I have met ‘withnailites’ along the way and without exception they have been people you’d like to know”

Before landing the part, Grant had been unemployed for nine months. He’d been living in London for five years, and had only two television roles to his name. Nearly 20 years on, he evidently still feels indebted to the break Withnail and I gave him, and also to the film’s sheer brilliance. “I laughed out loud and loved the script from the get-go, but it still astonishes me that they took the chance on a total unknown to play the lead role.”

It was undoubtedly a fortuitous gamble, particularly for an actor who rather unexpectedly cites Barbara Streisand as his inspiration. “She was the only person I ever wrote a fan letter to,” Grant recollects. “My parents were big fans and took me to see Funny Girl, a classic backstage story of an outsider/oddball who made it big. I was inspired to try to do the same.”

Richard E Grant also has a surprising fondness for marionette puppets. “I had a full size theatre in our garage, and I wrote plays, painted the scenery, tape recorded sound effects and music. I got teased relentlessly for playing with ‘dolls’ by the macho fraternity, some of whom have subsequently come out of the woodwork claiming friendship, so guess I have had the last laugh.”

There is little doubt of that, particularly considering the enormous artistic versatility Grant has demonstrated throughout his career. One popular role includes his stint as a manic pop band manager in Spiceworld, co-starring with the Spice Girls.

“My then eight-year-old daughter was so thrilled to have her dad be in their film. It was worth it for her reaction and endorsement alone.” And of working with the girls? “The spicers were as sassy, irreverent and likeable as you’d wish – way before anorexia, bulimia, marriage, divorce and real life kicked in!”

Grant has always maintained an equal fondness for working on the small screen and is entirely frank in his praises for the medium. “In my experience, the quality of television comedy and drama in the UK is unequalled in the world.” Why then, I probe, are we unable to imitate such high standards in our films? „The UK film industry is like every film industry outside the USA – a colonial outpost, succeeding every couple of years with a ‘crossover’ hit, almost always written by Richard Curtis. Despite an incredible roster of British actors, directors, writers and technicians, it is hostage to the whim of the American market and our own governmental disdain.”

In the past Grant has jumped behind the camera, and prior to that, behind a desk, in search of new successes. He’s currently in pre-production for a film he has written and intends to direct – an ambition he has been eager to fulfil for some time, inspired by having worked with some of the most talented directors in the business. So who would he most like to emulate on that side of the camera? “I have worked with Robert Altman on The Player, Prêt A Porter and Gosford Park and found him the best director. He is the most collaborative, open, generous and anarchic good-guy you are likely to encounter.”

Perhaps also someone who’s mastered the virtues of patience and resolve? “It has taken five years to get within a month of actual shooting,” Grant explains. “We are finally due to start shooting in June. I travel in hope!”

The appeal behind his new vocation seems to have emanated from childhood and his garage theatre in his hometown of Mbabane, Swaziland. “I am drawn to writing and directing as it is most like the feeling I had when I was a teenager with my puppet theatre. You are more in control of everything and involved in every aspect of production, so more challenged and fulfilled.”

This ability to control events has not always been present in Grant’s life, particularly so when he remembers the death of his father, who was Minister of Education in the government of the former British Protectorate. “My father died prematurely at the age of 52 when I was 24, and it is a recurring regret that he never lived to see me succeed beyond university and drama.”

However, it seems determination has never deserted the actor. “Proving yourself in a field where the casualty rate is so notoriously high is an ongoing challenge.” I wonder did he ever consider another line of work, perhaps following in his father’s footsteps into politics? “Definitely not,” Grant reassures me, citing a lifelong distrust of politicians as the main reason – something initially brought about in childhood by his awareness of the iniquities of Apartheid in neighbouring South Africa. When asked if actors and politicians are of a similar performing breed, he’s in little doubt.

“A connection between actors and politicians? I have two names for you to conjure – Ronald Reagan and Arnold Schwarzenneger. Actors? No. Politicians? You bet!”

When it comes to ‘the current bunch of mendacious bananas in charge of the country’, it’s not difficult to gauge Grant’s political opinions. “My obsession is their refusal to take responsibility for their actions”, Grant laments. “It seems that nobody ever has the guts to stand up and say “I’m sorry, I fucked up.”

But “I fucked up” are three words you’ll never hear such an amazing actor have to utter about his own career.

The all important question then: does he ever actually shop in Argos?

From: The Student Newspaper org (Edinburgh) – reporter: Joe Jackson

http://www.studentnewspaper.org/view_article.php?article_id=20040427160002