It seems like Hugh Grant is frustrated with the state of movie sets these days. On the one hand, he must have had fun starring in Dungeons & Dragons alongside his costars, which consisted of what he called “very attractive” men — the movie stars Chris Pine and Regé-Jean Page, so you see where he’s coming from. On the other hand, it seems like he’s mad that nobody on set is as close as they used to be anymore. Maybe he just wishes he was really best friends with Kate Winslet or Paddington?
Grant stopped by The Late Show with Stephen Colbert where (after the 3:00 min mark) he brought up how film sets are “weird” now because nobody bonds the way they used to, thanks to cellphones and social media. “You know, in the old days, by the end of the second week, you were all getting drunk in the evening and having dinner and falling in love with each other and all that,” Grant told Colbert. “And all that stopped ’cause of telephones. Really everyone goes home and looks at Twitter. It’s so sad.” His solution? To ban all phones from set so that the cast is forced to hang out with each other…for better or worse.
Colbert responded, “So, if there weren’t telephones on set, there’d be more affairs going on?” Grant seemingly agreed. “Yeah, I think so. You know, [Quentin] Tarantino bans telephones from sets and quite right too, and the people there, they do all shag each other — or so I’m told.” Once Upon A Time In Hollywood star Timothy Olyphant confirmed that Tarantino doesn’t like for anyone on set to use phones. Why Grant thinks this would lead to an affair is a little questionable, but hey, he had starred in about 400 romcoms, so he’s seen it all.
While Grant and Tarantino have yet to work together, the director has praised Grant’s ability to turn a rom-com into a classic piece of cinema, calling him the “perfect leading man” back in 2015. He even said that he could “see him in my stuff,” meaning that perhaps Grant will get a new role in a Tarantino movie and get to ditch his phone for a while! It seems like that’s what he wants, anyway.
You can check out the interview above, where Grant also mentions his “incredible ass” near the end. It’s important.