Hugh Grant, the king of charming rom-coms and floppy-haired befuddlement, has some thoughts about his iconic role in Notting Hill. And spoiler alert: they’re not exactly glowing.
In a recent sit-down with Vanity Fair where he revisited scenes from his greatest hits, Hugh didn’t mince words about his 1999 Notting Hill character, William “Will” Thacker. Instead of waxing nostalgic about the lovable, bumbling bookseller, he dropped this bombshell: Will is despicable. Yup, his words, not ours.
“When I stumble across this film on TV—usually after a few glasses of wine, mind you—I just think, ‘Why doesn’t my character have any balls?’” Grant confessed, clearly still haunted by Will’s questionable choices.
One scene in particular keeps him up at night: the moment when Julia Roberts’ Anna Scott (aka the glamorous Hollywood goddess) is hiding out at Will’s place, only for the paparazzi to come knocking. Does Will heroically shield her? Nope. He just lets her awkwardly shuffle by while he casually opens the door, presumably to say, “Come on in, guys!”
“It’s terrible,” Hugh admitted, cringing harder than someone forced to watch their middle school talent show performance. “Every girlfriend and now my wife has asked me the same thing: ‘Why didn’t you stop her? What’s your damage?’ And honestly, I have no answer. I just blame the script.”
But wait, there’s more self-deprecation! Hugh went on to praise his co-star Julia Roberts, because apparently, she’s everything and he’s just Ken. “Julia’s one of those actors who makes you think, ‘Oh great, she’s amazing, and I’m over here just hoping I don’t drool on myself.’ She’s so good at showing emotion it’s like her soul is visible. Meanwhile, I’m just trying to make sure my hair looks adequately floppy.”
Despite all the shade Hugh threw at himself, fans will probably still adore Notting Hill forever. Because really, who can resist a story about a simple bookseller who fumbles his way into the heart of a movie star? Even if said bookseller is, in Hugh’s words, “despicable.”
