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.

It was Reach For The Stars by Michael Cragg.

https://www.amazon.co.uk/gp/aw/d/B0C9V1VW8P/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0

I didn't know that Miranda Sawyer had written a book, that'll have to go on my list too.

Not necessarily anyone well known. My understanding is that when you join Equity, the actors' union, you have to register under a name that's different from all other current members. David McDonald had to become David Tennant, for example.

Richard Grant's real name is Richard Grant Esterhuysen. Very understandable that he didn't want to use a surname professionally that many people would have struggled to spell or pronounce, so it seems he went for his middle name but had to add an initial to distinguish himself from an existing Equity member called Richard Grant.

When you say 'it's dated now', what do you mean? Withnail and I was made in the late 1980s and set at the very end of the 1960s. Do you just mean 'it was made a long time ago and I only watch new things'? I would say it's a classic and will never date, but then it's one of my favourite films. That won't change even if it turns out that everyone involved is a nasty piece of work.

There's a lot of nonsense on this thread but this is right up there.

Thank you for this.

Obviously the journalist .She asked him to say what his diary entry about her would say.

But why would she say, 'Ouch' then? or not at least say something like, 'Ouch. But I did say all these things to him about me, so I guess I brought it on myself.'?

are they not dead? He doesn’t owe us details about all aspects of his life, up to him what he shares.

I have family who I'm not exactly estranged from, but we hardly see or contact each other. I don't wish to spend time with them because I find them small-minded, ignorant and bigoted about things like race, disability etc. But for most conversations and groups of people I don't want to get into that, so if asked or if it comes up I just say we're not a close family and we have nothing much in common. It's just easier and doesn't cause awkwardness like the whole truth might.

Nasty.
Never gave him any thought but will cross him off as a very nasty little man.

Shame on him.
Good on the journalist for exposing him for the ugly little worm he is.

He's close friends with Clodagh Mckenna, the chef.
Would have thought she'd have better judgement as she comes across well.

I wasn't too familiar with him. I mean I've seen him in things but had never seen his interviews. I was listening him on the Dish podcast and he came across as a very strange man. I think some of it was supose to be quirky but it came across a bit creepy.

Hope some posters can get out for some fresh air and vitamin D today. Some of these comments read as though a break from the screens is much needed.

(this really is a bizarre thread)

I watched his episode of Davina McCalls podcast and really loved him.
A very similar moment came up in that she asked him about how he writes to his wife each night, and what kind of things etc.
He mentioned Davina's boots and appearance, saying that's the kind of thing his wife would have asked him and wanted to talk about.
He said to Davina, ohh she'd be asking 'do you think she dyes her hair?' Etc.
I think he's quite odd but not maliciously so. I agree the interview quote OP posted doesn't come across well though.

She said that he responded to interview questions by throwing the same question back to the interviewer. There must have been many instances within the course of that interview that she could have included but she ends with that one. It could only have been derived from her responses. In and of itself it would seem cruel but it might not have in the context at the time. I don't know him and haven't heard things about him (he got on the bus I was on in Richmond last Summer). I just can't join in the pile on because I think its equally plausible that the journalist has put a slant on this for impact.

Well done to the journalist for including it.

I can well imagine he is unravelling now he’s lost his wife. I bet she was his anchor.

It is very odd indeed. I know nothing about this journalist but as a result of this thread I did a quick Google search for pictures of her and she looks nothing like what she's quoted him saying. I can only make sense of this by assuming it was a joke that just doesn't come across that way as she's framed it. Why she would do this is beyond me. Why a seasoned professional who's done thousands of promotional interviews would say something so unlikely to come across well in print is also beyond me. Where were the PR people, intervening to say 'You won't be printing that joke, will you?'

Jetlag? Prescription meds causing side effects? He's clearly been hit very hard indeed by his wife's death. I'm not making excuses for him when I say I do wonder if he's got mental health issues. I would be saying the same about a woman quoted as saying something equally strange and hurtful in similar circumstances.

What a piece of shit

I grew up in San Francisco. I am agreeing with someone's observation. Love your ignorant dismissal.

On a side note, and to those pp who mentioned Lynn Barber, I have been having a major overhaul and clean out of our book cases this week and I re-discovered her book Demon Barber lurking on the shelves. I cannot wait to read it again, her interviews used to be the absolute highlight of my Sundays.

Has there been discussion about this on X or other platforms? I don't subscribe. I really would like to know what REG has to say.

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 you're right @joliefolle. He might even have been putting it that way to reassure her that he doesn't see it as true. Don't anyone start telling me I'm not a feminist by the way!

On her Instagram stories, the journalists promotes the article and says ‘Haven’t stopped laughing since I interviewed this character’. Doesn’t sound like she took it seriously?

She mentions that he laughs loudly and pulls himself together as if he's about to give a performance at the Old Vic, so it's clear that it's a joke and he's taking the piss out of himself as well as Vassi Chamberlain who, as PPs have said, has written extensively about her issues around her appearance.

It may have been funny between the two of them but she's written it in such a way that it seems initially ambiguous — though less so if you read it carefully.

I'm surprised that a journalist who's apparently interviewed many big names would have included something that was so ambiguous. I'd also have hoped that a sub would read it and ask questions. As I said yesterday, if this blows up nastily, people will refuse to be interviewed by her.

Just noticed that @Gasp0deTheW0nderD0g has said what I've been saying rather better than I did. Totally agree that it's bizarre that a seasoned professional should include that anecdote in an article. She added the 'Ouch', too, which made it so much worse. What happened to his PR person?

Thanks! But I only thought that after reading your comments, which rang very true to me as observations from someone with experience in this area. I have none, but am just old, and have seen a lot of nonsense in interviews over the years. I don't assume I know people personally just because I've seen them in films or on TV, but from umpteen threads on MN it looks as if some people do think that. They seem to get confused between the characters actors play, and the public persona they adopt for career purposes, and the real person underneath.