The REG Temple is the official website for actor, author and director Richard E. Grant.
Richard has appeared in over 80 films and television programs, such as Withnail And I, The Scarlet Pinmpernel, Jack & Sarah, L.A. Story, Dracula, The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Gosford Park & The Iron Lady. In 2005 he directed his first major release, Wah-Wah.
This website is unique in that it has been run and maintained by volunteers and fans since 1998. For more information on its origins, please click here.
By Amy Macpherson
A long-time fan of the Royal Academy’s annual Summer Exhibition, actor Richard E Grant takes us on a whistle-stop tour of his favourite works of art in this year’s show. The Summer Exhibition 2015 is at the Royal Academy of Arts from 8 June — 16 August 2015.
By Michael Hodges for Event Magazine
Is holding a paperback on the beach too much bother? Would you like Reese Witherspoon to read you a story as you drive to the coast? Sounds as if you’re ready for the audio book revolution…
Reese Witherspoon found reading Harper Lee’s Go Set A Watchman which recasts Scout’s father Atticus Finch, the hero of To Kill A Mockingbird, as a racist, a shocking experience
Tucked away in a London studio, Bill Bailey is focusing on being a bear – specifically the roly-poly Baloo from The Jungle Book.
“I know,” says the roundish, bearded comedian with a resigned shrug. “It’s the role I was born for – a big, slothful bear.”
“Well, I don’t feel typecast at all,” says Richard E Grant, who has joined Bailey for the morning to play Kaa, the book’s ancient snake. “I’m an old and overweight python.”
The tanned, slim and floppy-haired Swaziland-born actor, still famous for his cartwheeling turn in 1987’s Withnail And I, is right – he doesn’t look in the slightest bit snakish. Well, not much.
You might think the celebrated pair are rehearsing for a major new film or stage show of Rudyard Kipling’s children’s classic. But you’d be wrong.
When I met them at the studio recently, the actors were recording an audio book, the latest literary phenomenon which – among other things – has completely changed the way we enjoy literature on holiday.
Audio books have been around for some time. But they’re no longer on the periphery of literature.
Digital audio sales for 2014 were just over £10 million, 24 per cent up on the previous year, and an astonishing 170 per cent up on 2010 figures – according to the Publishers Association’s Statistics Yearbook.
Now they are challenging Hollywood, which is no longer seen as the first option for big-budget re-imaginings of literary favourites.
Increasingly, as well as sole narrators – a market Stephen Fry has made his own with a rendition of the entire Harry Potter series – ensemble pieces attract big names
Producers at Amazon-owned audio book company Audible scored an artistic coup, and demonstrated the growing power of the industry, when they won the rights to produce an audio book of Go Set A Watchman, by To Kill A Mockingbird author Harper Lee, and wooed Hollywood star Reese Witherspoon to narrate it.
Now listeners can hear the dulcet tones of the star of Legally Blonde and Wild, narrating, uninterrupted, as they bask by the beach – reaching for that third pina colada without having to put down their book.
Witherspoon found reading the book, which recasts Scout’s father Atticus Finch, the hero of To Kill A Mockingbird, as a racist, a shocking experience.
“I had to keep reminding myself it was written in the Fifties,” she has said. “And these were the complex issues that people of the day were dealing with.”
But it paid off for Audible – the book went straight to the top of the charts in the U.S. and the UK.
Aiden Gillen, star of the hit TV series Game Of Thrones, is another Audible conquest, recruited to narrate the audio book of Sun Tzu’s The Art Of War.
Audio books are no longer cheap, but some providers offer free trials. Audible offers members two new books a month for less than £15, which, as the average audio book lasts 13 to 14 hours, is less than 50p an hour. Or, if you just want one title, buy Go Set A Watchman for £18.99.
Perhaps this explains why audio books are one of the fastest-growing arms of the entertainment industry, perfectly matched to the round-the-clock lifestyle of millions of people who no longer have the luxury of curling up in an armchair with a novel.
“People are on the move; we just don’t have time to open a book,” says Tracey Markham, UK manager for Audible.
“But we do have access to devices like smartphones and laptops, so we can listen to books when we are commuting, travelling and running.”
Initially the genres that drove the market were the same as those that sell actual books – crime, thrillers and science fiction.
And if you were feeling risqué, Random House even released an audio book of Fifty Shades Of Grey and its sequels (though one unimpressed reviewer compared U.S. actress Becca Batteo’s narration to ‘an anxious computer reading out pornography’).
Increasingly, as well as sole narrators – a market Stephen Fry has made his own with a rendition of the entire Harry Potter series – ensemble pieces attract big names.
Audible’s latest ensemble recording, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, signals its intent to take on literary classics as well as genre works
Audible has recently released Amok, a dramatisation of the best-selling thriller by German author Sebastian Fitzek, starring Adrian Lester and Rafe Spall. Last year The Child, by the same author, starred Andy Serkis, Emilia Fox and Rupert Penry-Jones.
Audible’s latest ensemble recording, Rudyard Kipling’s The Jungle Book, signals its intent to take on literary classics as well as genre works.
Bill Bailey, known for his live act and TV panel show appearances, admits an audio book recording session can be challenging.
“Comedy is a solitary profession, but this is a collaborative process. Normally it’s just me: that’s relaxing. But with a group like this there’s adrenaline because I don’t want to let the side down. I have a recurring nightmare where I turn up and I have no idea what I am supposed to say.”
Richard E Grant also relishes the chance to play Kaa, the reptile who saves boy Mowgli from the monkeys, and has no regrets that his performance will be heard rather than seen.
“This is probably the easiest way to earn a buck for me. There’s no make-up, no costume, and you can’t cock up as long as you can sight-read.”
Grant doesn’t reveal what he is paid, but he does well.
“If you record an audio book you are there for five days on your own. This whole thing today has taken about half an hour so it’s very quick. Then you hope the cheque arrives.”
Markham thinks he’s earned it.
“Narrating is an art,” she says. “I like someone to tell me a story. It’s a treat, something to be savoured.”
Some voices are easier to savour than others. Sam West’s delivery of Brighton Rock is as sinister and unsettling as having a switchblade drawn on you.
Stephen Fry’s mellifluous slide through Potter-land has won over legions of fans who might have struggled if JK Rowling had done the narration herself.
Not all authors appreciate that fact. Some think that because they wrote a book they are the right person to narrate it.
“That’s not always the best thing,” says Markham. “Usually it takes an author a day in the studios trying to narrate for me to persuade them that a professional narrator would be best.”
But occasionally, using the author does work.
“Germaine Greer narrated The Female Eunuch,” Markham says. “And she got very passionate about reading something she had first written a huge amount of time ago. It was a real experience for her.”
The audio book market now generates its own new work – in 2014 Audible commissioned Philip Pullman to write a companion piece to His Dark Materials, narrated by Bill Nighy.
Back in the studios, Bailey admits he is a fan.
“I’ve listened to countless audio books.” he says. “I love them when I’m driving – though it can be a bit grim listening to Wild Swans by Jung Chang on the way to Manchester. I had to stop, have a cup of tea and thank God I didn’t grow up in China.”
Grant says he doesn’t read audio books because he “would have to wear headphones in bed” if his wife was reading something else.
“You’re looking at me like I’m prehistoric.” he says. “And maybe I am the wrong generation. But I still love reading, I get through three books a week.”
Grant claims to care little for public perception of his work unless “someone wants to punch you, and that hasn’t happened yet.”
But for Bailey audio books offer a break from a comedy industry that is overwhelmed by a rash of stand-ups, threatening to “swamp the things that makes our industry different, interesting and original.”
Bailey knew Kipling’s stories as a boy, and Grant was read The Jungle Book by his parents when he was young, and in turn read them to his own daughter (“that’s when you are trying to make the audience go to sleep”).
Kipling seems an unusual choice for Bailey, a hippyish performer, associated with animal rights causes.
“I think Kipling would have liked the animal bits of my show,” he says. “Especially the bit where I rescue an owl.”
“If you look at Kipling through the filter of history, of course, he is in that late Victorian era that was trying to improve and educate. I totally agree with that.”
As the bear and the python head back to the studio I ask Grant how on earth he knows how good his audio book work is if he never listens to it.
“Oh, that’s easy,” he says in the doorway. “If they invite you back to do another one.”
In association with ZSL, ‘The Jungle Book – The Mowgli Stories’ is out on Aug 26 and available for free at audible.co.uk/jungle
He claimed a slice of cinematic immortality as star of Withnail And I. However, Richard E. Grant has a never allowed that iconic role to define him. Instead, he has hopscotched between big and small screen parts and recently embarked on an alternative career as creator of best-selling perfumes.
By Roisin Dwyer.
The actor is in Brown Thomas on Dublin’s Grafton Street chatting to Hot Press on the occasion of the Irish launch of his second unisex perfume, Jack Covent Garden. His debut scent Jack, launched exclusively in Liberty, London last year, quickly becoming its biggest seller.
Although today he is metaphorically donning his perfumer’s hat he is happy to discuss a variety of topics. Since starring as one of the silver screen’s most famous drunks in 1987’s Withnail And I Grant has become a cherished household name. Further films (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Iron Lady, Gosford Park, and, ‘er, SpiceWorld) and small screen turns (Dr. Who, Downton Abbey, Girls) followed, in addition to several presenting gigs such as Hotel Secrets, a behind-the-scenes look in some of the world’s swankiest establishments.
Given his prodigious output we wonder how he managed to fit his new project in?
“My father died when I was 24, at the age of 52. I have outlived him by six years now. Every year past his 52 is a bonus,” he says. “That made such a profound impact on me and my work ethic and has made me fearless about trying to do what I would like to do in the time that I have. Making perfume was a risk. I thought the worst that could happen is nobody buys it and I lose money. That didn’t come to pass. It still could. However, the reviews have been good. My sense is it will do well.”
In terms of his acting exploits, his latest is a television adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
“It’s a 10-part series set in the 1930s and is about the grandson of Jekyll. I am playing the head of the Secret Service,” he notes. “Charlie Higson created the whole series. He is a brilliant mind and has a great sense of humour, as you know from The Fast Show (which Higson co-wrote and performed in). When I met him he asked me how I saw the part. I told him what I thought and he said: ‘Bullseye! That’s exactly what we have in mind’. And I was offered the job.”
Perhaps Richard’s biggest television role yet was in Brit blockbuster Downton Abbey. To what does he attribute its fanatical following?
“I don’t know!” he laughs. “It’s odd. The Asian and American markets are obsessed with it too. The silhouette of our age is somebody with their head bent, looking with intense focus at a mobile phone. So maybe it has to do with seeing another way of life not many generations removed and has the whole upstairs/ downstairs dynamic.”
Closer to the present, one of Richard’s most fulfilling screen performances was as Conservative grandee Michael Heseltine opposite Meryl Streep in Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady.
“Meryl is the best of the best of the best,” he smiles. “She has an absolutely astonishing ability to make all this legend around her – the 16 Oscar nominations, the three wins and all of that – disappear. She engages with you, is incredibly in the moment. She is well read and there is no pretence. The protean nature of her talent is unsurpassed. In my lifetime, nobody comes close.
“And everybody loves her at the same time,” he adds. “Also, she is not Mary Poppins. She is hilarious and sexy. The most surreal moment I remember was when we were filming a corridor scene set in Westminister and, fully dressed as Mrs Thatcher, she would break out into a medley of Abba songs between shoots! So to see Margaret Thatcher channelled by Meryl Streep singing ‘Waterloo’ was most enjoyable!”
Another talented alpha female he had the pleasure of working with was Lena Dunham, creator and star of smash hit Girls. An avowed fan of Grant she cast him as a recovering addict in four episodes of the show.
“Lena is a multi-hyphenate talent. She writes, produces, stars and nurtures everyone on her set,” he enthuses. “She wears her authority over a crew of 120 people with such lightness and dexterity, married to no sense of how much power she really wields. Yet her authority is innate.”
In the series, Grant’s character gets romantically entangled with one of the key cast members, which added to his enjoyment of the experience.
“It was hilarious because I was the same age as most of the girls’ fathers, so to be jumping one of them – Jemima Kirke – was hilarious for me. And probably absolutely horrifying for her!” he laughs. “They were so open, welcoming, accommodating… all the things you could hope for.”
Addicts, fictional and factual, shaped Grant’s life. Withnail was the catalyst for his acting career and on a personal level his upbringing in Swaziland was indelibly marked by his father’s alcoholism.
His parents separated when he was 11 and his father descended into extremely violent alcoholism; he once fired a pistol at his son’s head in a drunken rage. Grant dealt with the issues years later in extensive psychoanalysis, about which he has been very open.
“My father absolutely informed how I play alcoholics,” he nods. “My conviction as a result of how I grew up in that schizoid- addiction-Jekyll-and-Hyde situation is that secrets are inherently toxic. Airing them and talking about them is the best way of ‘de- demonising’ the demons. It has certainly worked for me.”
As for his most famous screen addict Withnail… does he find himself haunted by the character? Is there resentment of any kind?
“Not at all. It opened every door for me,” he states. “I met Peter O’ Toole, who was forever Lawrence of Arabia in people’s eyes and Joel Grey who is forever Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret and Tim Curry who is forever Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The common denominator is that no matter what else you do that is the thing that people mark you for. I suppose on some level you are not forgiven for not being that person forever more. Then, some actors have only played one part. Thankfully I haven’t been stuck playing alcoholics all my life!
“It is not something I feel negatively about at all,” he adds. “When I realise people are still watching and discovering the film, it is an astonishment to me because next year it is 30 years old. And the fact that people still quote from it is testament to how great the writing is. It essentially deals with failure and the end of a friendship. Most people have encountered failure or have had friendships that were incredibly intense and then dissolve and you never get them back so they are universal themes.”
As our time with the self-professed ‘compulsive smeller’ is nearing its conclusion we ask if there are any more aromatic adventures on the horizon?
“I’m working on a third one as we speak,” he enthuses. “It’s a London landmark name that I have a history with and it has an incredible history of its own but because I’m waiting to see whether I get the trademark application granted I can’t say what the name is!”
Richard’s latest fragrance, Jack Covent Garden, is available from Brown Thomas now.
Richard E Grant’s fragrance, called JACK, which was manufactured by Somerset cosmetic company Swallofield, won the Best New Independent Fragrance award at the FiFi awards.
By WMNOVergnault
A fragrance by actor Richard E. Grant has won a national award.
The fragrance, called JACK, which was manufactured by Somerset cosmetic company Swallofield, won the Best New Independent Fragrance award at the FiFi awards.
The FiFi (Fragrance Foundation) Awards, were established to recognise the fragrance industry’s creative achievements.
Grant, who always had the ambition to create his ‘signature in scent’, approached Swallowfield to help develop the final concept of JACK which would make it a ‘stand out’ product on the shelf in its Union Jack drawstring bag.
Following the awards, he said: “I am absolutely bowled over that JACK won at the FiFi’s. Swallowfield and everyone else involved in this project have been a huge help. It took months of planning, sketching and talking and it is phenomenal to receive recognition.”
Jane Fletcher, group sales and marketing director at Swallowfield added: “It was a joy working with Richard, who clearly has so much passion for his product. He came down to our production facility in Wellington and worked closely with our team during every stage of the process.
“We are best known for formulating and manufacturing beauty and personal care products for big brands but this high profile project demonstrates the breadth of our capability including creative design, packaging and sourcing.”
JACK, which is self-funded by the actor, was first launched last year in April in London.
The fragrance comprises exotic ingredients, including top notes of lime, marijuana and mandarin, heart notes of clove, pepper and nutmeg, and base notes of oud, vetiver, white musk, tobacco absolute and olibanum resin.
The much-loved Penrith tea room scene from Withnail & I (actually filmed at a chemists’ in Milton Keynes).
By Euan Ferguson
Unspecified cake it was, which for this publication is a rarity. “Just bring out the cakes.” “Cake, and fine wine.” The context was all. A couple of wastefully drunk and filthily arrogant actors bumbling into the Penrith Tea Rooms at closing time. And Richard E Grant’s unimprovably bonkers follow-up, somehow both slurred and royally, commandingly, articulate: “We want the finest wines available to humanity.”
It was 1986 and the filming of Withnail and I. Yet the writer and director Bruce Robinson, for whom this was pretty much autobiographical, was back in 1960s Camden. Railing as ever against an unestablishable establishment: and moving the setting to the Lake District effectively moved the decades. The distaste on the face of the proprietor, the fine character actor Llewellyn Rees, surely echoes the pursed lips of all who had dogged Robinson’s 60s days with twitching curtains and long noses when all he was trying to do was … have some fun.
Robinson is thankfully very much alive, as I found a few years ago. As are of course Grant and Paul McGann, the “I” of the film’s title. Rees died in 1994. But I managed to catch up with photographer Murray Close, who took this still. Did anyone, I ask, have an inkling of what a success, a cult, that film would become, with its timeless celebration of simple friendship and generational differences?
“Not at all. Bruce had to fund the last reel himself. We didn’t have a clue. It was a great script, of course, but everyone was an unknown – though I believe Bill Nighy read for the main part. But slowly, slowly, videos and then DVDs came out, and … yes, in hindsight, it’s a great film, but I just remember it as truly tremendous fun, with a UK crew of a certain age and propensity to laughter.”
Murray’s website has many more extraordinary outtakes. The “Penrith tea-rooms” location was in fact what is now a chemists’ shop in Stony Stratford, Milton Keynes. The last few lines of Robinson’s script, with Grant doing Hamlet by the London Zoo wolves, still enthral. “What a piece of work is a man … [yet] man delights not me, no, nor women neither, nor women neither.” [The wolves are unimpressed. Withnail exits into the rain.]
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