Hugh Grant has admitted he was far from enthusiastic about playing an Oompa Loompa in the box-office hit Wonka, a role that has already sparked debate over its casting.
The 63-year-old actor faced criticism after taking the part, with an actor with dwarfism arguing that the role should have gone to someone with the condition, citing the limited number of suitable screen opportunities available for dwarfs.
Grant, whose estimated net worth is $150 million, later suggested he had not been eager to accept the job, saying financial pressures linked to raising his family played a part in his decision.
The Golden Globe winner, who is a father of five children aged between 13 and five, told Metro: ‘I slightly hate [making films] but I have lots of children and need money.’
His blunt comments about Wonka are not out of character, as Grant has previously criticised some of his best-known films, including Love Actually, Nine Months and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Hugh Grant has said he hated his controversial Oompa Loompa role in Wonka after facing criticism from an actor with dwarfism over the casting
Grant has previously taken aim at several of his past projects, including Love Actually (pictured), Nine Months and Four Weddings and a Funeral
Much of his frustration with Wonka appeared to stem from the production process, which used CGI to turn him into a tiny, piccolo-playing, orange Oompa Loompa.
Of the many cameras and filming equipment required to create the effect, he moaned: ‘It was like a crown of thorns, very uncomfortable.
‘I made a big fuss about it. I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more… and frankly, what I did with my body was terrible, and it’s all been replaced with an animator.’
Wonka is not the only film the movie star has had negative comments about as he revealed that he found it ‘excruciating’ filming his iconic dancing scene as Prime Minister in Love Actually.
He said he saw the dance part in his script and immediately thought, ‘I’ll hate doing that!’.
While speaking Diane Sawyer’s for ABC’s The Laughter & Secrets of Love Actually: 20 Years Later, Hugh said he was even ‘out of time’ with his wiggle in the final edit.
The famous scene saw him as PM dancing around 10 Downing Street to The Pointer Sisters’ song Jump before realising someone was watching him and quickly stopping.
Hugh explained: ‘I saw it in the script and I thought, ”Well, I’ll hate doing that”. I didn’t fancy doing the dance at all, let alone rehearsing it.’
‘He kept saying no,’ writer and director Richard Curtis – who appeared alongside him in the interview – then joked.
‘I think he was hoping I’d get ill or something and we’d say, ‘Oh, well, what a shame, we’ll have to lose that dancing sequence.’
Richard went on to say that Hugh was ‘grumpy’ the day they filmed the dance scene, but ‘it was a contractual obligation’ that he follow through.
Hugh then quipped: ‘A contractual guillotine, yes! And I’m out of rhythm, by the way, especially at the beginning when I wiggle my ass.’
Richard added that he was pleased with how Hugh really committed to the scene, joking: ‘I thought, ”That’s agonisingly embarrassing. He’s just perfect.”’
The Love Actually star revealed in 2017 that he also thought Four Weddings and a Funeral was an ‘appalling choice’.
Speaking about the film, Hugh said that the writer Richard Curtis ‘seemed to want me dead’.
Hugh said he only took the part in Wonka because ‘I have lots of children and need money’. He has three children with wife Anna Eberstein (pictured) and two with an ex-partner
He explained that because Richard had designed the character of Charles ‘in his own image and when I waltzed in, he didn’t think I was him, and he was right.’
‘The bottom line is, it was Richard. Once I met him, I played him basically,’ according to Deadline.
He revealed that ‘Four Weddings and a Funeral’ producers wanted to give him ‘the worst haircut in the world and it backfired on them all because it became a haircut that was copied.’
Despite the movie being nominated for an Academy Award for Best Picture, Hugh told the audience that he thought it was a terrible film when he first saw a rough cut.
‘Rowan (Atkinson) was funny, the rest of it was just awful and I had to be helped sobbing back onto the set,’ he said.
‘Then they had a screening in Santa Monica, and suddenly everyone loved it. It was a total surprise to everyone.’
Hugh became hot property in Hollywood after his 1994 hit Four Weddings and a Funeral and was inundated with offers.
The Love Actually star revealed in 2017 that he also thought his 1994 hit Four Weddings and a Funeral was an ‘appalling choice’
But he previously admitted that he made a big mistake by saying yes to the wrong movie.
‘I horrified my scary new LA agents by turning everything down and then finally made an appalling choice,’ he said.
‘I made the wrong film with very good people,’ he said. ‘I overacted grotesquely.’
Hugh also starred in Nine Months, a film about a successful child psychologist and one-time playboy Samuel Faulkner who panics when he hears that his girlfriend, Rebecca, is pregnant.
But the star also complained about this role and said shooting the movie was ‘a horrid experience’.
‘But, it made money and that’s all they care about. I was offered some huge children’s film almost as I emerged from the police station,’ he added.
Hugh also hated Nine Months, a film about a successful child psychologist and one-time playboy Samuel Faulkner who panics when he hears that his girlfriend, Rebecca, is pregnant
