To think of Hugh Grant is to think of the great and popular romantic comedies of the 90s and 2000s. Of the charming little scoundrel before whom it was impossible not to fall in love. The mischievous look of Four weddings and a funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999) or Love Actually (2003). Successes so enormous that many forgot that he had previously offered interpretations far from that record in great titles such as Mauriceby James Ivory (1987) or Rowing in the windby the Spanish Gonzalo Suárez (1988).
Grant settled into a role that he masters perfectly and from time to time offered a turn to other more dramatic genres, but it has been a few years since he seems to have taken a liking to playing much darker roles again. Who knows if it was the success of the series The Undoing (2020), where he offered his darker side, which led to him being offered the leading role in Heretic, A24’s commitment to horror films – which premieres on January 1 – where Grant plays a peaceful and friendly man who welcomes two ultra-Catholic missionaries into his house on a rainy afternoon, whom he will try to convince with particular methods.
Grant displays his arsenal of charisma, but this time with a more sinister tone in a particular commitment to scary films with a religious background. The result has been a Golden Globe nomination. The actor does not blame, or at least not entirely, the industry for having pigeonholed him, and believes that it was also his decision: “I had a lot of success with the romantic comedy, and it’s It’s true that in Hollywood the custom is that if something works they want to do more because they want money. That happened, but I was greedy and vain enough to say yes.”
Not only that, but he declares himself “proud of some of those films.” “They are not bad and they are more interesting than one thinks, but I do wish I had kept the other part of my performance simultaneously, without leaving it aside for so many years,” he adds and confirms the rumor that Tarantino is a big fan of You the lyrics, I the music: “Yes it is. It’s very surprising. In fact, he knows all of Marc Lawrence’s films and puts them in his Hollywood movies. You the lyrics, I the music beside The lair of the white worm.
For Heretic He had to read a lot about the history of religion, but he does not consider that his character has changed his way of seeing the subject, because he has always thought “that it was nonsense.” “I refused to go to church since I was ten years old. My parents used to drag me. Although I think it’s nonsense, when I look at it there is something that fascinates me, because I have the impression that the Catholic countries of Europe have a better time and enjoy life more than the Protestants, what is there in that faith that somehow made life better? “I don’t have the answer,” he says.
When asked about the film’s links to current events, Grant pulls on his British phlegm to cut it off. “Are you trying to get me to say something about Elon Musk?” he responds quickly. He doesn’t care and enters the rag. “It is true that my character is an extremist, but in his case it is analogous. I don’t think I’ve ever had a computer, an iPad, or a phone, and I loved that. He has become radicalized simply by learning from books. While Mr. Musk, I think is an interesting case because he has been radicalized by his own creation. Elon Musk is not a stupid man. “It has been greatly radicalized by its own algorithm,” says the actor.
I had a lot of success with romantic comedy, and in Hollywood if something works they want to do more, but I was greedy and vain enough to say yes.
Hugh Grant
— Actor
The thing about social networks and algorithms scares him. “Yes, I am very afraid of what they are doing to the world and even to my poor children. I think when we look back in five or ten years we’ll think, ‘what the hell were we doing allowing, especially children, to use all this technology?’ I think it will feel like we gave them spoonfuls of cocaine. “It’s crazy.”
For this reason, it has something similar to a utopia: “My dream would be that there was a large outlet from which I could disconnect the internet. I would do it because I see that it has not brought great advantages to the world. I think it’s messing with our heads. It makes people hate each other. It makes us less interesting because we can no longer deal with nuances in discussions, and that is very dangerous. I hope this ends, because I think cyberwarfare will become a huge factor. At some point some Western country will have to shut down its entire energy or medical infrastructure and that will make us realize why we made everything digital. What does it mean that a robot picked up my dirty plate at the airport yesterday? Why have we eliminated a job? What are the real savings? Why are we trying to eliminate all those things? That’s what I think about the subject, although I guess I sound like an old man,” he says.
He is also concerned about fake news, and to avoid them he clings “to a few pillars” in whom he trusts, “like the BBC or The Guardian.” “When you read something scary on the internet you have to go to traditional sources that you can trust because many times it will be nonsense created by the clickbait. Now everything is clickbait motivated by money. If we get attention, if we get interaction, if we get looks, we get money. So let’s say something outrageous and scary, and then everyone will click, and it works. What Elon Musk is doing with Twitter is that, making everything count without any type of standard and saying that it is for freedom of expression, but is that the reason or just money? He leaves the question in the air, aware that he has already made the answer clear without having to say it and as his character probably would. Heretic manipulating his victims.
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