“ I'm A Loyal Dog By Nature” Richard E Grant

Known for his flamboyant performances in Withnail and I, Downton Abbey and Francis Ford Coppola’s Dracula, actor Richard E Grant talks to Eva Mackevic about friendship, marijuana, and why he finds it so hard to forgive.

- Eva Mackevic

In a quiet suite of Claridge’s hotel my blood runs cold as I begin my conversation with Richard E Grant. I gather from the get-go that the actor can be very picky about the things he shares, careful not to reveal too much about himself or tread on any risky territory—a trait which makes him both fantastically charming and frustratingly impenetrable.

We’re here to talk about his new film, Can You Ever Forgive Me? which tells the true story of the American celebrity biographer, Lee Israel, played by Melissa McCarthy. When Israel’s writing career took a turn for the worse, leaving her penniless, she turned to a life of crime, forging letters of famous deceased writers and selling them for big money to book shops and private collectors. Richard portrays her hedonistic, larger-than-life friend, Jack Hock— a cash-strapped British expat who joined Israel in the pursuit of this risky illegal scheme.

“There was very little to go on [in terms of research], other than that Jack died at the age of 47 in 1994; had a little cigarette holder that he thought would stop him from getting lung cancer, as he was a chain smoker; and that he had been in jail for two years for holding a knife to a taxi driver’s throat, arguing about a fare.” Richard tells me about the role in his mellifluous, plummy voice.

Hock was also an out-of-control but extremely charismatic alcoholic which is very reminiscent of arguably Richard’s most famous character, Withnail, I observe.

“I suppose if you play somebody who’s as alcoholic, verbal and vitriolic as Withnail, inevitably there’s going to be an overlap into this kind of personality, but Jack Hock wanted to be liked, he was like a Labrador who would lick people into submission. A character like Withnail would not have given someone as spiky and misanthropic as Lee Israel the time of day.”