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Original poster

to think this is not nice of Richard E Grant

255 replies

StripesZigZags · 06/04/2025 16:14

and can't be swept aside as "just a joke".

Interview with him in the Times Style magazine today. He tells the interviewer (Vassi Chamberlain) that he writes a diary every night as if he is writing to his wife. She asks him what the entry about today and their interview would say and this is the end of the article. For context earlier in the article she says that after she asked him a question when he'd finished answering he'd "fire the same" quesiton back at her which is probably how he had the additional information.

Here is the quote:

"What will tonight’s account say, I ask. He bursts out laughing.

He sits up and clears his throat as if he’s about to perform at the Old Vic.

“Astonishingly,” he begins, “the journalist was 4ft 11in.” I stop him right there. I’m 5ft 1in. “She’s 5ft 1in. Her face looks like a roadmap because she had head and neck cancer 14 years ago, which she luckily survived, but because of it she’s not allowed to have plastic surgery. All her girlfriends now look 40 years old but her jawline is hanging around her knees and in ten years she will tie a bow with her dyed hair around her chin in a tight knot and she’ll look like the Queen at Balmoral.”

Ouch."

I read that and thought "what a bitch of a man". I've never really liked him - his Instagram videos where he's constantly smiling with a fake smile that never reaches his eyes always seem ultra insincere as he pontificates about how wonderful the day or the tree or the park is. This really exposes the heart of a person.

I guess everyone him included will try to justify it as a joke but it's very nasty - making the point that her short height is 'astonishing' like some circus freak, her face looking like a road map. I think her finishing 'ouch' was really very understated and kind.

Vassi Chamberlain | The Times & The Sunday Times

Vassi Chamberlain is a writer for The Times and The Sunday Times. She has interviewed everyone from Henry Kissinger and Pamela Anderson, to Alexander McQueen. Vassi has also written about the downfall

https://www.thetimes.com/profile/vassi-chamberlain

OP posts:
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tommyhoundmum · 14/08/2025 20:42

He looks as though there's a bad smell under his nose. Not keen on those aesthetic types

Maartje2023 · 14/08/2025 15:17

Coming very late to this, but have to say it’s just awful what he said about the journalist. As a young teenager in the early nineties I accidentally came across and loved Withnail and I and (based solely on that) Richard E. Grant.

I went completely off him after reading A Pocketful of Happiness. It purports to be a love letter to his late wife, but is so self-absorbed and self-aggrandising that it left a really nasty taste in my mouth. In it he endlessly quotes letters in which his late wife tells him how great he is and how much she loves him and praise other actors have given him. No famous name is left undropped and there are whole chunks about him being away on set or at awards where she isn’t even mentioned.

i also felt very uncomfortable about him hardly mentioning Joan’s son — who is as much her child as her daughter with him is. It feels a bit like how he entirely excised his brother from his life in the autobiographical film he made years ago. Just all seems rather narcissistic.

Slothy22 · 23/04/2025 06:19

Wow! What an arsehole.
Hes no oil painting.

HelenWheels · 22/04/2025 07:02

he sounds difficult

TeaAndTattoos · 22/04/2025 06:57

I don’t know who she is but that is incredibly rude of him to say about her I hate the way horrible things that men say get brushed off as a joke when it’s clearly not it’s just bullying dressed up as a joke when it backfires on them.

Sus0933 · 22/04/2025 06:51

Dont get too sanctimonious about him. Remember she wrote the article, not him. She could have left out what he said about her.
And, do you think he cares what you think about him??

notatinydancer · 10/04/2025 11:55

How disappointing , I used to quite like him.

Stirfries · 10/04/2025 10:16

Turmerictolly · 10/04/2025 10:11

Read this and thought, how horrible. Really thoughtless thing to say. I looked her up and she’s an attractive woman. Misogynistic basically.

Well, or you’re completely misreading it.

marmaladeandpeanutbutter · 10/04/2025 10:13

Sometimes Mumsnet really gets their teeth into a person. Here is one example.

Turmerictolly · 10/04/2025 10:11

Read this and thought, how horrible. Really thoughtless thing to say. I looked her up and she’s an attractive woman. Misogynistic basically.

CarterBeatsTheDevil · 10/04/2025 09:29

joliefolle · 07/04/2025 10:45

The journalist has written articles about her "wonky face" and beauty crisis after cancer (she is fashion, beauty, celeb journalist). In the interview she says they talk about ageing and how it feels, they talk about the reviews of his weird face and whether it affects him, she's told him those things about her face and he's repeated them back to her in a theatrical joke when she asks what he'd tell his wife about who he'd met that day. He has taken it too far. She has taken it badly.

I think it's very obvious that this is what's happened, and also, from her socials, that the journalist is making it clear that she realised it was a joke. I have met him and really don't think he's an arsehole but of course he's as capable of misjudging a situation as anyone else.

Original poster
StripesZigZags · 09/04/2025 19:03

I thought that was just a funny turn of phrase common on this site tbh. You see it all the time here.

I've been directly called "just ignorant" by you which is much worse I think!

OP posts:
Doughnut89 · 09/04/2025 18:53

StripesZigZags · 09/04/2025 18:31

You say:

Whilst most celebs don’t get sign off on interviews before they go to print. The previous poster clearly has far more knowledge than you.

but the previous poster specifically said:

Most celebrities will expect to see and sign off on the interview before publication,

which is just totally wrong as you agree!!! .

My main point was that you came across rude, condescending and arrogant in your response to them despite your many incorrect statements in this thread.

“LOL. Tell me you know nothing about the media without telling me you know nothing about the media.”

This was rude and unnecessary just because they posed an alternative opinion or point of view. You have demonstrated you do not have a clear grasp on how media works in most of your statements but no one has been this rude to you

Original poster
StripesZigZags · 09/04/2025 18:31

You say:

Whilst most celebs don’t get sign off on interviews before they go to print. The previous poster clearly has far more knowledge than you.

but the previous poster specifically said:

Most celebrities will expect to see and sign off on the interview before publication,

which is just totally wrong as you agree!!! .

OP posts:
Doughnut89 · 09/04/2025 14:12

StripesZigZags · 09/04/2025 11:51

I doubt anyone uses a tape recorder any more!

I think it was a figure of speech. Digital recorder whatever. Almost all journalists will record interviews for a full record, accuracy to refer to when writing up and for legal reasons.

Most celebrities will expect to see and sign off on the interview before publication, so clearly no one thought there was anything to be concerned about here.

LOL. Tell me you know nothing about the media without telling me you know nothing about the media. This literally never happens unless there is a unusually cosy and tame relationship with a pet journalist. Editorial independence is the standard of all respectable media outlets like the Times, BBC etc besides they just don't have the time - its a high churn time pressured industry. A celebrity demanding to see and sign off an an interview would be told where to go or not be interviewed unless there were very rare or exceptional circumstances of sensitivity like accusations of domestic violence against others for example.

You’re so unnecessarily rude to anyone who disagrees with you. Wow.

Whilst most celebs don’t get sign off on interviews before they go to print. The previous poster clearly has far more knowledge than you. You keep spouting nonsense about legalities without any actual knowledge of the way journalists and media work so you are clearly the one who knows nothing about media.

The previous poster is correct in saying that clearly no one has any issue with this interview. As you yourself have pointed out there were like PRs or agents present who would have likely intervened had there been any concerns over his comments.

This suggests that there probably was more context and further conversation which weren’t printed which you keep reluctantly ignoring and spouting the same boring legal implications line.
They don’t have to print exactly everything which was said and so for all we know we’re missing a huge chunk of conversation which would have made his remarks make more sense

fieldofstars · 09/04/2025 14:00

Craquedechevalier · 09/04/2025 09:30

It's not his other initial. His surname at birth was Esterhuysen. His middle name is Grant.

His initials at birth were RGE. He's rearranged those initials to REG to enable him to register with Equity.

What are you talking about.

Original poster
StripesZigZags · 09/04/2025 11:51

I doubt anyone uses a tape recorder any more!

I think it was a figure of speech. Digital recorder whatever. Almost all journalists will record interviews for a full record, accuracy to refer to when writing up and for legal reasons.

Most celebrities will expect to see and sign off on the interview before publication, so clearly no one thought there was anything to be concerned about here.

LOL. Tell me you know nothing about the media without telling me you know nothing about the media. This literally never happens unless there is a unusually cosy and tame relationship with a pet journalist. Editorial independence is the standard of all respectable media outlets like the Times, BBC etc besides they just don't have the time - its a high churn time pressured industry. A celebrity demanding to see and sign off an an interview would be told where to go or not be interviewed unless there were very rare or exceptional circumstances of sensitivity like accusations of domestic violence against others for example.

OP posts:
Craquedechevalier · 09/04/2025 09:30

It's not his other initial. His surname at birth was Esterhuysen. His middle name is Grant.

His initials at birth were RGE. He's rearranged those initials to REG to enable him to register with Equity.

fieldofstars · 09/04/2025 08:54

Stirfries · 09/04/2025 08:01

His other initial, as people have said, and there was already someone called Richard Grant registered with Equity. Like lots of actors with ordinary names, he tweaked his name. Emma Stone is really Emily, but there was already an Emily Stone in the SAG, ditto Diane Keaton (really Diane Hall), David Williams became David Walliams when he joined Equity. Katy Perry is really Katy Hudson, but changed because Kate Hudson was already established. Olivia Colman is really Sarah Colman.

Show quote history

It's not his other initial. His surname at birth was Esterhuysen. His middle name is Grant.

Ladyymuck · 09/04/2025 08:34

How awful, indefensible really.

Stirfries · 09/04/2025 08:01

Member869894 · 09/04/2025 00:23

Will someone tell me what the 'E' is all about?

His other initial, as people have said, and there was already someone called Richard Grant registered with Equity. Like lots of actors with ordinary names, he tweaked his name. Emma Stone is really Emily, but there was already an Emily Stone in the SAG, ditto Diane Keaton (really Diane Hall), David Williams became David Walliams when he joined Equity. Katy Perry is really Katy Hudson, but changed because Kate Hudson was already established. Olivia Colman is really Sarah Colman.

fieldofstars · 09/04/2025 03:00

Member869894 · 09/04/2025 00:23

Will someone tell me what the 'E' is all about?

from wiki: Grant was born as Richard Grant Esterhuysen on 5 May 1957

Member869894 · 09/04/2025 00:23

Will someone tell me what the 'E' is all about?

Craquedechevalier · 08/04/2025 22:17

I doubt anyone uses a tape recorder any more!

She doesn't have to include everything he said. She can leave stuff out if it's dull or irrelevant. And if when she gets back to her office it's unclear or there's any confusion about what the celebrity has said or what they meant by what they said she can always contact his/her PR person and ask for clarification. Most celebrities will expect to see and sign off on the interview before publication, so clearly no one thought there was anything to be concerned about here.

VC's deliberately chosen to include an off-the-wall exchange without putting it into context or adding comment or explanation. An exchange which, if you read it carefully, indicates that he's joking and she's in on the joke. But she does nothing to make that really clear and unambiguous, and she's chosen to add an 'ouch', which can be read a dozen different ways. It's poor writing.

I'm guessing it was for clickbait and controversy, which the OP here provided. It doesn't seem to have caught fire, though — probably because REG, though eccentric and OTT, seems to be widely regarded as one of the good guys in his profession.

StubbornStool · 08/04/2025 21:55

Ofc she hasnt made it up

She will have him on tape