From Linda B and ContactMusic.com:

British actor Richard E Grant fears Africans will be furious about his new autobiographical film Wah-Wah – because he’s rewritten their history in order to tell his story.

The Withnail And I star was born in Mbabane, Swaziland and has just finished writing, directing and starring in the film about his early years there.

But he insists it was impossible to make the movie without anachronisms, because it took so long to make.

He says, “The historical liberties that were taken were necessitated by the three-year time scale of the screenplay, from 1969-1972. Swaziland’s independence for example was granted in 1968, so I have taken historical license.”

Thanks Linda.

ContactMusic.com – Monday 8th August, 2005

Richard E Grant is glad Hollywood shunned him for attacking US movie bosses in his 1996 autobiography “With Nails” – because the only movies which come out of America consist of “famous people running away from explosions”.

The British screen star has no time for America’s movie industry, and is even less patient with the movie-goers who happily accept the constant stream of formulaic action films.

He fumes, “What is there now? Famous people running away from explosions. That’s it.

“Audiences will queue round the block to see an unimaginably highly-paid film star running away from a fantastically expensive explosion.

“They think it’s their money’s worth. I despair that’s what people have to do.”

ContactMusic.com – Monday 8th August, 2005

British actor Richard E Grant fears Africans will be furious about his new autobiographical film Wah-Wah – because he’s rewritten their history in order to tell his story.

The Withnail And I star was born in Mbabane, Swaziland and has just finished writing, directing and starring in the film about his early years there.

But he insists it was impossible to make the movie without anachronisms, because it took so long to make.

He says, “The historical liberties that were taken were necessitated by the three-year time scale of the screenplay, from 1969-1972. Swaziland’s independence for example was granted in 1968, so I have taken historical license.”

Thanks to Sue W (via The Guardian) – A new REG Interview!

He’s known as a raconteur, famously indiscreet. Now Richard E Grant has made a film about his boyhood in colonial Swaziland: a bold move for an actor who, so he tells Sally Vincent, can’t bear to watch his own movies.

“I have kept a diary,” he said, “since I witnessed my mother’s adultery at the age of nine.” As he spoke, an elderly woman was slowly trundling her luggage trolley so close to our knees we had to draw our legs out of her path. Richard E Grant was unfazed, as though his narrative focus was so fine he had not noticed her at all. He is a disconcerting fellow. This morning, at the crack of dawn, he came off the red-eye from Newfoundland and, if he was a normal human being, he’d be crashed out in his pit, sleeping off his jet lag, not spring-heeling around this rowdy hotel. I can never trust manic energy, let alone a man with eyes the colour of turquoise. It’s not natural.

You can check out the whole interview here.

Thanks Sue!

‘Tis true! Richard has confirmed that, along with Ruby wax and athlete Colin Jackson, he has done a programme for ITV to coincide with the 30th anniversary of the film “Jaws” called “Celebrity Shark Bait”, which was filmed in Cape Town. REG has told me that he got to go into the water in cages for an incredible close encounter with great white sharks. The programme screens in the Autumn in England.

Richard also wanted to stress that the “Reel Life” interview at the Edinburgh Festival is “an audience with” type deal.

REG is still in Toronto on the last leg of shooting “Above And Beyond”.