Love Actually cast reunite in teaser
Hugh Grant was very reluctant to do one of his most iconic scenes as the Prime Minister David in holiday favourite Love Actually.
In the iconic Christmas rom-com, Grant portrays the UK’s new leader but is distracted from his role when he starts falling in love with Number 10 staffer Natalie (Martine McCutcheon).
One hilarious scene features the PM dancing around Downing Street to Jump (For My Love) by the Pointer Sisters until he’s interrupted by his secretary (Meg Wynn Owen).
As the movie reaches its 20th anniversary this year, Express.co.uk can look back at what writer-director Richard Curtis said on Love Actually’s 10th anniversary.
In an interview with the Daily Beast, he admitted: “A not nice memory is mainly Hugh and the dancing.
Read more: Hugh Grant’s former £7.25million Kensington penthouse back on the market
“He was HUGELY grumpy about it. He was so wanting his bit not to be fake; he wanted to feel as though he could be prime minister.”
Curtis recalled Grant feeling “tricked” whenever he gave him directions for the dance, which included making it “sweeter” and “charming”.
The director revealed: “He kept on putting it off, and he didn’t like the song.”
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Up until shooting, Grant was meant to dance to a Jackson 5 song, but the producers of Love Actually weren’t able to secure the rights.
“He was hugely unhappy about it,” Curtis said. “We didn’t shoot it until the final day and it went so well that when we edited it, it had gone too well, and he was singing along with the words.
“When you edit a dance sequence like that, it’s going to be a third of the length, and the bit he’s singing the words to isn’t going to be the bit of that moment, so it was incredibly hard to edit.”
20 years after raising the roof in Number 10, Grant has taken on a wildly different role as an Oompa-Loompa in Wonka opposite Timothée Chalamet as the chocolatier.
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Speaking to Metro, he admitted: “I slightly hate [making films] but I have lots of children and need money.”
As for the mo-cap suit needed to bring Chalamet’s orange companion to life: “It was like a crown of thorns, very uncomfortable.
“I made a big fuss about it. I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more… and frankly, what I did with my body was terrible, and it’s all been replaced with an animator.”
Although he hated the technical side of the role, Grant clarified he “loved” the cast and crew, which includes Paddington director Paul King.
“I live here so it’s not that exciting to be in London but I love this film, I love the people who made this film,” he said at the premiere, per the Daily Mail.
“I made Paddington 2 with them. There’s no one I hate, which is very rare, cast, crew, producers, maybe a couple of executives I don’t like much. But otherwise they are a lovely bunch.”
Wonka releases in cinemas on Friday, December 8.
Love Actually is available to stream on NOW in the UK.
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