to think this is not nice of Richard E Grant

[StripesZigZags]

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.

I can only think he's repeating back ab earlier conversation between them although the "Ouch" suggests maybe not. However, she's still a journalist and it's a good part of the interview to get people talking about and sharing the article so I'm cautiously skeptical this came out of the blue.

I am confused. He talks about the journalist's height and then who is he referring to when he says her face is like a roadmap? Is that his wife or the journalist?

@Yesterdaywassunny it doesn't seem very likely because of her 'ouch'. If it was her words, you'd expect her to say so because it makes him look so awful it would be bad journalistic practice and inaccurate. He would complain and she'd be in trouble professionally.

How likely is it you'd say that about yourself to someone you are meeting to interview to promote their stupid film?

I’m surprised… I listened to a podcast with him on the other week and actually thought he sounded like a pretty decent guy, certainly never been a fan, but it changed my view of him slightly. He did take the piss, bit sarcastic at times and is fairly blunt but he wasn’t unkind.

Blimey. That's proper nasty.

I wonder if he's falling apart after his wife died and is possibly drunk or medicated? I was under the impression he was a decent chap.

How nasty

Yes!! He never mentioned his stepson at all when his wife died, just their shared child.

I was reading it thinking he must be ill. Also strange that the journo included it as it’s just so off. No one says such vile things in real life surely.

I was reading a book recently about the music industry in the 90s and 00s and one journalist was talking in it about being sent to interview a pop group who were so rude and obnoxious she wrote the whole encounter up as it happened and swiftly got a grovelling phone call from their pr lady apologising for their behaviour and asking if they could redo it. Unfortunately for them the journo was so pissed off she refused. Wonder if it might be a similar case here.

This is the article, non-paywalled version. https://archive.ph/d8bY9

Used to quite like him as an actor and felt sorry for him when his wife died, ah well, another one bites the dust, not funny, not clever, just vile and cruel

I’m very shocked by that, I’ve always thought he was great.

Very cruel.

I’m so sorry. Those comments reflect horribly on the people who made them. They say nothing whatsoever about you (as I’m hopefully sure you already well know!)

Wow, that's very strange and totally uncalled for. I can only imagine she must have said something that he took great offence to earlier in the interview to say something so spiteful. Either that or he's losing his marbles. It really is horrible and very, very odd.

He's always struck me as waspish. I enjoy his on screen performances, but there's invariably a snide element to his characters; it must be a quality he's known to bring into his acting.

I thought he'd be a wittier with it, though. That isn't smart or even bitchy, it's a low-down verbal assault.

That’s horrendous. I’m extremely small because of a disability and health issues plus medication have really aged me. I can’t afford things like Botox etc and there’s a great chance it won’t last in me very long anyway.
i know what I look like but I’d be mortified if someone described me like that even if that’s how I think of myself

I may have to watch Spiceworld The Movie on the back of this thread. An absolute banger of a film and that's a hill I will happily die on.

Sometimes there's such a gap between the parts an actor plays and their real personality. I used to think he was cool. He's clearly not cool.
I was vaguely disappointed with him when he turned out to be a bit grovelling and try hard when he was promoting a film called "Can you ever forgive me?" When he was nominated for an Oscar he was came across as really fake and "little me here at the oscars?"
Of course he behaved really oddly when he was in the Star Warts film and and Limmy had a lot of fun making fun of it.

His beloved wife was short, about 5’, and more than 10 years older than him, and dyed her hair 🤔

So not sure if he was just being completely and utterly horrible, or if there’s something I’m missing here? It’s very odd behaviour.

Crikey, my jaw dropped open at that, such appalling comments if true. She’s also beautiful, hope she hasn’t taken any notice of what he said.

I wonder why he’s been so obviously and publicly cruel? Doesn’t seem sane

Never warmed to him so not surprised he said this

I wonder if she’d made those comments in their unedited interview and he summarised them into some irresistible headline grabbing copy for her. As an aside his wife was also short. It may reflect his true character but it’s doubtful for me having seen him interviewed IRL before - the interviewer was a wasp and he appeared kind, empathic and uxoriously besotted still with his wife who had passed and he was genuinely interested in the normal people in the small audience & had to compensate for the interviewer faking that he had read Grant’s memoir about his wife’s illness and death. He seemed genuine and not all narcissistic.

What a horrible and cruel thing to say about someone. What a tosser he is.

Blimey. I think maybe the ‘mentally ill’ angle. Even if he is a huge arsehole in real life (though never heard it mentioned?), why on earth would he suddenly sabotage himself by saying something so abhorrent.