Hugh Grant Rejected Studio Movies Due to ‘Pushback from Non-Creative Execs’: ‘You Felt Like a Big Corporation Was Breathing Down’ the Director’s Neck
variety.comZack Sharf Digital News Director Hugh Grant revealed in a new interview with Vanity Fair that he’s rejected several offers to star in major Hollywood studio films.
The actor popped up as the villain in last year’s Paramount tentpole “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves,” and it appears that movie was the rare studio movie to get Grant’s sign of approval. “I’ve turned down a few that I thought were insufficient in quality or independence allowed to the filmmakers — you felt like a big corporation breathing down the neck of these filmmakers, and I don’t want to make that decision,” Grant said about turning down Hollywood tentpoles. “I asked them bluntly.
I quizzed the directors. You can tell quite early on, since you might have a few ideas about the part before you’ve signed up — you suggest things, and you can tell if there’s a lot of pushback from non-creative executives.” Grant championed “Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves” as an exception and said “it’s such a good film.” However, the tentpole struggled at the box office and grossed just over $200 million worldwide. “It’s the biggest mystery to me — why didn’t anyone do market research before?” Grant said. “I think that’s what went wrong: Basically, people just thought, I don’t want to see a film about this game.
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