Express.co.uk – 3rd November, 2013

Withnail & I star Richard E Grant is off the booze [GETTY]

By Adam Helliker

Although he doesn’t touch a drop of the hard stuff himself, Richard E Grant makes sure his guests are well-watered at his home in Richmond, south-west London.

So it wasn’t too surprising to see him buying a fine silver cocktail shaker at an antiques fair last week.

Of course Grant, 55, is famous for his role as an alcoholic in Withnail And I, but he had to be forced to drink to get the part.

The film’s director wanted him to feel what it was like to be drunk, demanding that he down a bottle of champagne and half a bottle of vodka over an evening – with disastrous results.

“I passed out for a day. It was terrifying,” recalled the actor, who grew up in Swaziland where he had to deal with a drunken father, who fired a pistol at his then 15-year-old son in one sozzled rage.

Now, the urbane Mr Grant waves away drinks when they are proferred. He says: “If I drink I get a rash and become ill for 24 hours.”