On the eve of a grand tour of America, the actor talks about sniffing trees and singing for his supper
RICHARD E. GRANT is the godfather you never had—the one who’d have sent you hampers from Fortnums once a term and opened Champagne on the slightest pretext. He would never, ever have forgotten your birthday. The first thing I notice about him is that he really, really wants everyone around him to be having a good time—a rare quality in an actor. The second, even more unusually for someone in his profession, is that he gives the impression of never quite being able to believe his luck.
‘I’m 60 in two blinks and I’m absolutely astonished to be working as much as I am,’ he says earnestly. As we speak, he’s flinging things into suitcases ahead of a six-month stint in America. He’ll spend half that time filming Can You Ever Forgive Me, playing Hollywood biographer turned-forger Lee Israel’s cocaine addled sidekick. Then, it’s off to Chicago, where he’ll be starring as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.
It’s the second time he’s taken on the role—his first Prof Higgins (Sydney, 2008) got rave reviews. ‘On the opera circuit, if you’ve done it once and didn’t fall off the stage, they’ll ask you to do it again,’ he deadpans. ‘And you don’t have to be a great singer to play the part. My wife [Joan Washington, who he married in 1986] is an accent coach—a female Henry Higgins— so I’ve sort of been around it for a long time. Also, the opportunity to do the musical with a full-sized orchestra was absolutely irresistible. T. S. Eliot said it was actually an improvement on Shaw’s already brilliant play, so it has a very high pedigree.’
Denne historien er fra January 25 2017-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Denne historien er fra January 25 2017-utgaven av Country Life UK.
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Happiness in small things
Putting life into perspective and forces of nature in farming
Colour vision
In an eye-baffling arrangement of geometric shapes, a sinister-looking clown and a little girl, Test Card F is one of television’s most enduring images, says Rob Crossan
'Without fever there is no creation'
Three of the top 10 operas performed worldwide are by the emotionally volatile Italian composer Giacomo Puccini, who died a century ago. Henrietta Bredin explains how his colourful life influenced his melodramatic plot lines
The colour revolution
Toxic, dull or fast-fading pigments had long made it tricky for artists to paint verdant scenes, but the 19th century ushered in a viridescent explosion of waterlili
Bullace for you
The distinction between plums, damsons and bullaces is sweetly subtle, boiling down to flavour and aesthetics, but don’t eat the stones, warns John Wright
Lights, camera, action!
Three remarkable country houses, two of which have links to the film industry, the other the setting for a top-class croquet tournament, are anything but ordinary
I was on fire for you, where did you go?
In Iceland, a land with no monks or monkeys, our correspondent attempts to master the art of fishing light’ for Salmo salar, by stroking the creases and dimples of the Midfjardara river like the features of a loved one
Bravery bevond belief
A teenager on his gap year who saved a boy and his father from being savaged by a crocodile is one of a host of heroic acts celebrated in a book to mark the 250th anniversary of the Royal Humane Society, says its author Rupert Uloth
Let's get to the bottom of this
Discovering a well on your property can be viewed as a blessing or a curse, but all's well that ends well, says Deborah Nicholls-Lee, as she examines the benefits of a personal water supply
Sing on, sweet bird
An essential component of our emotional relationship with the landscape, the mellifluous song of a thrush shapes the very foundation of human happiness, notes Mark Cocker, as he takes a closer look at this diverse family of birds
