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Hugh Grant's awkward Oscars red carpet interview with Ashley Graham is only the beginning.
By John Sundholm — Written on Mar 13, 2023
Every performer has an off night now and then, even huge A-list stars known all over the world for their artistic chops.
But Hugh Grant's, 62, appearance on the 2023 Oscars red carpet has struck many people as more than just an awkward stumble. Especially given incidents in Grant's past, many felt his Oscars red carpet appearance was far more than just a befuddled Englishman tripping over his words under the glaring spotlight of a red carpet. Some see it as part of a long-standing pattern.
Here are 5 times Hugh Grant has been accused of being rude:
Grant has a history of prickly-at-best, downright rude-at-worst encounters with colleagues and others on film sets and TV shoots. Let's begin with his most recent, and the elephant in the room—his 2023 Oscars red carpet interview.
1. Hugh Grant is being accused of being rude to Ashley Graham during their awkward Oscars red carpet interview.
Model and TV presenter Ashley Graham, 35, didn't exactly ask Grant tough questions on the 2023 Oscars' "champagne carpet." But that didn't stop Grant from making her job like trying to extract blood from a stone.
Graham stuck to basic boilerplate red-carpet questions, but Grant all but refused to answer. Asked who he was hoping would win an Oscar that night, Grant looked to the heavens as if hoping to be struck by lightning and responded, "No one in particular." When Graham gamely moved on to ask which designer Grant was wearing, he answered, "Just my suit."
Not even Graham's questions about Grant's experience working on Rian Johnson's "Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery," which was nominated for the Academy Award for Best Adapted Screenplay—and which was the entire reason Grant was attending the Oscars in the first place—inspired Grant to rise to the occasion. Grant simply sniffed, "I'm barely in it."
To be fair, Grant referenced how uncomfortable he was right from the beginning, calling the Oscars "vanity fair," a literary reference used to call something ostentatious and unseemly, which Graham misinterpreted as a reference to the annual Vanity Fair Oscar Party thrown by the magazine of the same name.
Still. Responding, "Almost" when asked if he enjoyed appearing in the film he was there to represent? Not a great look, especially when he had the option to ... simply stay home.
2. Hugh Grant recently threw a 'terrible' tantrum at a woman on the set of 'Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.'
Grant's awkward Oscars moment comes on the heels of a story he himself told about blowing up on a woman working on the set of the "Dungeons & Dragons" film adaption, which comes out March 31, after she distracted him during a take.
"I lost my temper with a woman in my eyeline on day one," Grant told TotalFilm, "I assumed she was some executive from the studio who should have known better."
But it turns out the woman was there chaperoning a young girl working on the set. "Terrible. A lot of grovelling," Grant said of his outburst, going on to compare it to fellow actor Christian Bale's notorious f-bomb-laden upbraiding of a crew member for a similar mistake on the set of "Terminator: Salvation" back in 2009.
3. Jon Stewart called Hugh Grant the worst 'The Daily Show' guest of all time.
Grant threw a similar tantrum on the "Daily Show" set back in 2009 that was so bad Stewart vowed to never have Grant back on the show. Stewart said Grant was "giving everyone sh-t the whole time" he was on set and described him as "a big pain in the ass."
Things reached a head when it came to the clip from "Did You Hear About The Morgans?" the major flop romcom Grant starred in with Sarah Jessica Parker, that was going to be shown on "The Daily Show" during Grant's appearance. Stewart said Grant blew up about the "terrible clip" the film's publicist had chosen, to which Stewart shot back, "Well, then make a better fu-king movie."
Note to self—never mess with Jon Stewart.
4. Hugh Grant has called several of his female costars crazy, including Emma Thompson, Renee Zellweger and Sandra Bullock.
In an appearance alongside Meryl Streep on "The Graham Norton Show" to promote the 2016 film "Florence Foster Jenkins" in which he and Streep co-starred, host Norton read off several famous quotes Grant has made about his female costars during a 2009 Elle profile in which he was asked to describe them in a few words.
Grant called Emma Thompson, his costar in 1995's "Sense and Sensibility" and 2003's "Love Actually," "clever, lovely and mad as a chair," going on to say she is "not remotely sane."
Grant has spoken similarly of his fellow romantic lead in 2000's "Bridget Jones's Diary" Renée Zellweger, whom he called "delightful, [and] also far from sane," going on to talk about the epically long emails Zellweger sent him while making the iconic romcom. "She is genuinely lovely," he told Norton. "But her emails are 48 pages long. Can't understand a word of them."
And as for Sandra Bullock, his costar in 2002's "Two Weeks Notice?" She's apparently a crazy dog lady—"genius, a German, but too many dogs," was his line on Bullock, a quote surely far and away crazier than anything any of these three women has ever done.
In Grant's defense, the comments seem to have all been made in good humor, and he has maintained a close friendship with all three women—including regular long emails from Zellweger to this day, whom he calls "one of the few actresses I haven't fallen out with."
Still, "crazy" being an accusation frequently leveled at women, Grant's comments have left a bad and specifically sexist taste in many fans' mouths.
5. Hugh Grant is hated by several of his female costars, including Julianne Moore, Rachel Weisz and Drew Barrymore, whom he made cry on set.
In the same interview with Graham Norton, Grant was asked about his costar in the 1995 romantic comedy "Nine Months," Julianne Moore, whom he called a "brilliant actress" but one who "loathes me... definitely hates me" after their experience working together.
Grant's love interest in 2002's "About A Boy," Rachel Weisz, apparently felt similar. "Clever, beautiful, despises me," Grant reported to Elle of their time as colleagues.
And when it came to his 2007 "Music and Lyrics" leading lady Drew Barrymore? Things went even worse. Grant said he "made her cry" and that Barrymore also "hates me." Asked by Norton to elaborate, Grant said his big row with Barrymore arose after she "made the mistake of giving me notes" about his acting performance on set.
"How would you take that?" Grant turned and asked Streep, sitting beside him. "I took them very well, didn't I?," Streep quipped about their time working on "Florence Foster Jenkins" together, to Grant's visible embarrassment.
To be fair, Grant has been open for decades about how anxiety-inducing he finds the Hollywood machine to be and how crushed he felt by the pressure to be a "charming leading man" for all those years. In fact, he said in 2021 that he had only recently begun enjoying his job after aging out of those sorts of roles.
But if his prickly Oscars red carpet appearance is any indication, it seems like Grant's feelings about Hollywood may have soured once again.
John Sundholm is a news and entertainment writer who covers pop culture, social justice and human interest topics.