Richard E. Grant

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Richard E. Grant (2018)

Richard E. Grant (born May 5, 1957 in Mbabane , Swaziland ; actually Richard Grant Esterhuysen ) is a British actor .

biography

Childhood and Adolescence in Africa

Richard E. Grant grew up in Swaziland , a monarchy between South Africa and Mozambique, as a former colony of Great Britain and a member of the Commonwealth . Grant's father was the country's minister of education until 1968. He and Grant's mother divorced in a spectacular fashion when Grant was eleven years old. Grant wanted to be an actor even as a child. After graduating from Waterford Kamhlaba College, he eventually studied acting and English at the University of Cape Town . There he co-founded a theater company called the Troupe Theater Company in 1979 . The group was multiracial, which was still very provocative in South Africa at the time . Grant also directed some of the ensemble's productions.

From South Africa to London

After his father's death in 1982, Grant left Africa for London . The start of his career in Great Britain was slow at first. He worked for a long time as a waiter in a bar in Covent Garden . In 1983, Grant worked on various British dialects with his language trainer and later wife, Joan Washington. He then took engagements at the theater and in 1984 for his role in the play Tramway Road by Ronald Harwood from the magazine Plays and Players as Most Promising Newcomer award.

First successes in film

In 1987, a while after his first role in a television production Honest, Decent and True , he was given the opportunity to audition for the role of unemployed actor and drinker on the British production Withnail & I. The director of the film, Bruce Robinson, was initially skeptical, as he had actually intended someone else for the role. Grant won over the audition with his depth and got the role. The film gained cult status in Great Britain for the celebration of drinking and the sharp-tongued monologues of Withnail, played by Grant . In his private life, however, Grant does not drink alcohol, coffee, tea or milk. Grant said in an interview that he used his impressions from post-colonial Swaziland and the director Bruce Robinson as a basis for his role as Withnail.

Withnail and I represented the breakthrough for Grant. During the filming, however, he doubted whether the eccentric role of the insulting drinker would block his way to film forever. The opposite turned out to be true.

Further choice of roles

From 1986 Grant often played mostly minor roles in two or more film productions a year. The list of famous directors and actors he has worked with includes names like Robert Altman , Martin Scorsese , Francis Ford Coppola, and Jane Campion . The film Withnail and I , which is quite well known in Great Britain, shaped Grant's further career, and Grant is among other things. a. repeatedly associated with the figure of Withnail in newspaper interviews. In the following years he preferred eccentric characters in his choice of roles. He was seen as an arrogant dandy in the time of innocence , as a particularly nasty and remote villain in Hudson Hawk or as an over-the-top creative in Prêt-à-Porter , a representation that was based on Vivienne Westwood .

Leading roles have been few and far between for Grant. So far, his portrayal of the lovable widower in Jack and Sarah - Daddy single-handedly and his role in Keep the Aspidistra Flying alongside Helena Bonham Carter should be mentioned . In 1996 he played the role of the investigating police inspector in a remake of the Dürrenmatt fabric It happened in broad daylight with the title Death in the Cold Morning Light . He starred on television in 1999/2000 in a leading role in The Scarlet Pimpernel .

Other work

In addition to his work in films and at the theater, he dubbed cartoons, e.g. B. the Barkis Bittern at Corpse Bride by Tim Burton , and reads audio books. Grant has published two film diaries and a novel about his experiences with filming, film production, and life in Hollywood.

In 2005 Grant finished his first own film: Wah-Wah is a semi-autobiographical film about his childhood and youth in his native Swaziland. For the project he was able to win Gabriel Byrne and Emily Watson as leading actors .

Awards

His directorial work Wah-Wah was nominated for the Douglas Hickox Award in 2005. In 1992 Grant was also nominated for a Golden Raspberry for Worst Supporting Actor in the film Hudson Hawk , which was then awarded to Dan Aykroyd for his role in Valkenvania - The Wonderful World of Madness . Also nominated were Grant's film partner Sandra Bernhard for worst supporting actress, Bruce Willis for worst leading actor as well as the film itself.

In 2002, the ensemble received from Gosford Park by Robert Altman , the also belonged Grant, different prices from film critics associations of the United States as well as the Screen Actors Guild .

For his portrayal in the film Can You Ever Forgive Me? In 2019 he was nominated for an Oscar and a Golden Globe Award for Best Supporting Actor.

Private life

Grant has been married to Joan Washington since 1986. Washington has a son from his first marriage. The first child of the two, died in 1986 shortly after birth during the time of filming of Withnail and I . Their daughter was born in 1989.

Grant supports his old school in Swaziland and is involved with Amnesty International .

Filmography (selection)

Works

  • Richard E. Grant: With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant . London 1996, ISBN 0-330-34434-X .
  • Richard E. Grant: By Design . London 1998, ISBN 0-330-36828-1 .
  • Richard E. Grant: The Wah-Wah Diaries: The Making of a Film . London 2006, ISBN 0-330-44196-5 .

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. He wasn't that good but there was something boiling away there. Richard is quite mad, a bit behind the door. Robinson on Grant's Audition, 20/20 Magazine - Issue Number 14, May 1990
  2. a b 20/20 Magazine - Issue Number 14, May 1990