Hugh Grant calls his ‘Notting Hill’ character “despicable”: “Why doesn’t he have any balls?”

nme.com:

Hugh Grant has been discussing his character in Notting Hill, and he doesn’t appear to think very fondly of him.Taking part in Vanity Fair’s Scene Selection, he opened up on his thoughts about his character, William Thacker, the love interest of Julia Roberts’ Anna Scott.Grant explained: “Whenever I’m flicking the channels at home after a few drinks and this comes up, I just think, ‘Why doesn’t my character have any balls?’ There’s a scene in this film where she’s in my house and the paps come to the front door and ring the bell and I think I just let her go past me and open the door.

That’s awful.”He continued: “I’ve never had a girlfriend, or indeed now wife, who hasn’t said, ‘Why the hell didn’t you stop her?

What’s wrong with you?’ And I don’t really have an answer to that – it’s how it was written. And I think he’s despicable, really.”The rom-com, directed by Roger Michell, focuses on Scott falling for Thacker, who owns a bookshop in Notting Hill.

Their relationship is complicated by the paparazzi invading her privacy – including when she comes to Thacker’s home needing to hide after a tabloid scandal.This isn’t the first time Grant has spoken negatively about his past movies or characters he’s played – he told The Mirror in 2014 that he “pretty much hated any other film I’ve ever been in.