Hugh Grant in Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. |
Hugh Grant doesn’t seem like a man living out his Dreamz.
In recent years, Grant’s suffered stage fright-induced panic attacks that’s left him frozen during film shoots. “I'm so scared of that happening again I was reluctant to take a part,” he tells Scotland’s The Daily Record.
Grant, though, obviously prefers working to sitting at home feeling sorry for himself. Hence the reality TV satire American Dreamz, which marks Grant’s first film since Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason almost drove him to pursue a writing career.
Yes, Grant felt “agony” making American Dreamz, he tells The New York Times.
But there might be more agony to come if American Dreamz--even with its modest $19 million budget--fails to obliterate its (relatively easy) targets with Network-like precision. Grant’s About a Boy director Paul Weitz not only takes aim at American Idol’s power to manufacture pop stars, but at the war on terror. Grant plays the Simon Cowell-esque host of American Dreamz, which scores an coup when the U.S. president (Dennis Quaid) agrees to judge the talent show to boost his waning popularity.
Grant’s Greatest Hits*
- Nothing Hill $116 million
- Two Weeks Notice $93.3 million
- Bridget Jones’s Diary $71.5 million
- Nine Months $69.6 million
- Love Actually $59.6 million
* Since 1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral ($52.7 million)
Regardless, American Dreamz clearly isn’t your typical Grant-ian comedy. But that doesn’t mean Grant’s jeopardizing his career. After all, he is trolling for laughs, something which he’s done too many times since Four Weddings and a Funeral made him a fop of a heartthrob.
Before Four Weddings..., Grant found himself pigeonholed as an upper-class gentleman in various Merchant-Ivory costume dramas. Then Four Weddings... transformed the unknown Brit into a contemporary romantic lead. And audiences willingly forgave the handsome new star for getting caught with prostitute Divine Brown by flocking to his first American comedy, Nine Months.
Grant’s Greatest Misses*
- An Awfully Big Adventure $259,724
- Bitter Moon $1.8 million
- Restoration $4 million
- The Englishman Who Went Up a Hill But Came Down a Mountain $10.9 million
- Extreme Measures $17.3 million
* Since 1994’s Four Weddings and a Funeral ($52.7 million)
Perhaps Extreme Measures’ poor reception made Grant think that audiences would not accept him as anything other than a dream lover. Or maybe his risk aversion’s a means to combat his stage fright, and that he takes comfort in the familiar. Either way, Grant’s doing himself a disservice. His fellow Brits, from Colin Firth to Jude Law and Ewan McGregor to Clive Owen, certainly refuse to limit themselves to comedies, dramas or sci-fi extravaganzas.
It’s not that Grant couldn’t get Closer to Julia Roberts or stare down Inside Man’s Denzel Washington. Whatever the reasons, he doesn’t want to prove that his stirring performance in About a Boy wasn’t a fluke. This Christmas, he’ll woo Drew Barrymore in Music and Lyrics By (Dec. 22). Sounds like Grant will be going to the same old love song again.
The Bottom Line
If and when he can get his stage fright under control, Grant next needs to do do something about his conservative ways. Enough with the comedies, at least for the time being. American Dreamz and Music and Lyrics By may enhance Grant’s short-term bankability, but he needs his own Closer or Trainspotting to ensure he won’t lose important roles in years to come to his more adventurous contemporaries.
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