Hugh Grant discusses the Wachowskis film that revived his career

Hugh Grant played multiple characters in the Wachowskis' 2012 film Cloud Atlas following the commercial failure of his 2009 film Did You Hear About the Morgans?, alongside Sarah Jessica Parker. In a recent interview, Grant said that the film revived his acting career.

Talking to Vanity Fair, the actor said, “I was completely marooned. The Wachowskis offered me just a few small little parts in Cloud Atlas, and to be honest, I was probably only offered that because some of their international distributors had said, ‘We need some more recognizable names. Cram someone recognizable in here.’ They would’ve thought, ‘Oh, we don’t really want Hugh Grant, but we’ll give him some tiny parts.’ They will deny that but I think it’s partly what happened."

An adaptation of David Mitchell's novel Cloud Atlas, the film interweaves six epic stories ranging from 1849 to 2321. Grant plays an antagonist in each of the stories. However, the film faced flak for its use of white actors in the roles of East Asians.

“I thought, Oh yeah, I used to really enjoy doing characters—in fact, I almost used to enjoy acting,” Grant shared. “I started out doing silly voices, odd people, making people laugh at university, and then doing this comedy show in London. It was doing characters. Then through sheer chance, maybe because of the way I looked, I got drawn into the leading romantic hero. It went fine, but it’s not what I think I’m best at—partly because it’s less fun."

The actor stated that the film "completely changed" his career and marked his transition from a romantic hero to one who plays negative characters more frequently.

“On a big screen, over 90 minutes, unless there’s a sense of the quivering jelly—the damaged bit inside—it’s going to be boring and just be a mustache-twirling baddie. You’ve got to get to the jelly,” Grant explained.

Grant has a negative character in the recent show The Undoing.

The actor's upcoming projects include Heretic and Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy.