Grant wanted drugs baron role

The Hollywood star is well known for his posh accent and bumbling demeanour in movies such as Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill.

But he had ambitions for a much grittier role as the famed marijuana smuggler in new biopic Mr. Nice, according to Marks – but the part eventually went to fellow Welshman Rhys Ifans.

Marks tells Scotland’s Daily Record, “I met Daniel Day-Lewis through Bob Geldof. He was very interested and I think he would have been really good. Hugh Grant also wanted to play me for a while. I wasn’t so sure about that.

“But Rhys was always my first choice. We had known each other for so long that he didn’t need to study or research me – he knew everything already.”