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Hugh Grant reveals why he quit acting after Music and Lyrics

Hugh Grant talks ‘The Undoing’ and quitting acting after ‘Music and Lyrics' (AFP via Getty Images)
Hugh Grant talks ‘The Undoing’ and quitting acting after ‘Music and Lyrics' (AFP via Getty Images)

Hugh Grant, who is currently enjoying a major career comeback with the success of HBO's The Undoing, opened up about why he quit acting for a stretch of time.

The British actor, who is best known for playing charmingly blundering leading men in romantic comedies like Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994) and Notting Hill (1999), unofficially left acting after his 2007 film with Drew Barrymore, Music and Lyrics, returning briefly in 2009 for the widely panned Did You Hear About The Morgans?

"I developed a bad attitude from about 2005 onwards, shortly after Music and Lyrics", he told the Los Angeles Times. “I just had enough. Then I went back in 2009 and made another film. At that point, it wasn’t me giving up Hollywood. Hollywood gave me up because I made such a massive turkey with that film with Sarah Jessica Parker [Did You Hear About the Morgans?]. Whether I wanted to or not after that, the days of being a very well-paid leading man were suddenly gone overnight. It was slightly embarrassing but it left life free for other things.”

Grant eventually made his way back, starring in 2016's Florence Foster Jenkins, 2017's Paddington 2, 2018's TV mini-series A Very English Scandal, and his current role opposite Nicole Kidman as Jonathan Fraser in The Undoing.

In The Undoing, Grant plays a duplicitous children's oncologist, who, though outwardly very amiable, may or may not be a murderer.

Read More: The Undoing’s ‘awareness nodding’ is the new virtue signalling

"I met a lot of child oncologists", Grant said regarding his preparations for the role.

"Although they were all charming men, as you’d expect, it wasn’t terrifically helpful until my brother and his wife, who live in New York, recommended a doctor from a completely different field who was beloved of all the Upper East Side ladies. He was extremely charming but I could see how one might think, 'You might be a little bit too good to be true, my friend, with your wonderful bedside manner and your perfect suits.'"