Hugh Grant may be best-known for playing self-deprecating charmers, but he’s had a very diverse career. He can play nice, but he can also play evil, in prestige HBO shows as well as Paddington sequels. One thing you won’t see probably him doing again is hoofing it up in a musical, as he’s not a fan of one of the most popular bits from the very popular Love Actually.
As per Deadline, on the ABC News special The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later, the beloved actor singled out the scene where his prime minister character breaks into a big dance set to The Pointer Sisters’ “Jump (For My Love).”
“I saw it in the script and I thought, ‘Well, I’ll hate doing that,’” Grant recalled. “I didn’t fancy doing the dance at all, let alone rehearsing it.”
Writer/director Richard Curtis, who worked with Grant on films like Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill, remembered that Grant “kept saying no” to the scene, and that he was “grumpy” the day it was set to be shot. “I think he was hoping I’d get ill or something and we’d say, ‘Oh, well, what a shame, we’ll have to lose that dancing sequence.’”
Grant eventually went through with what he called a “a contractual guillotine.” He pointed out that he’s not even in rhythm, “especially at the beginning when I wiggle my ass.”
But the scene has endured. “And to this day, there’s many people, and I agree with them, who think it’s the most excruciating scene ever committed to celluloid,” Grant said. “But then some people like it.”
It’s clear he’d rather do a Dungeons and Dragons movie than dance onscreen. After all, at least with D&D he can make saucy sex jokes. Meanwhile, you can watch Grant’s “excruciating” dance below.
(Via Deadline)