Hugh Grant on His ‘Grumpy’ Reputation, Studying Serial Killers for ‘Heretic’ and Refusing to Let His Wife Watch ‘Nine Months’

variety.com:

Hugh Grant has a bit of a reputation. It’s one he’s mostly responsible for — referring to himself as “grumpy” in interviews, telling directors up front he’s going to be hard to work with.

Maybe there’s some truth to it — or perhaps he’s just a very good actor. Take the press tour for “Wonka,” the film in which he stole scenes as an Oompa Loompa.

The cast were asked in a press conference if they enjoyed making the film. “Everyone said, ‘Yes, we loved it. We loved it. We loved it,’” Grant recalls. “And when they got to me, just for a comedy moment at the end, I said, ‘I hated it.’” To him, it was obviously a joke. “But on the web, it’s become a fact that I hated making that film,” Grant notes. “And I didn’t hate it all; I loved making it.

I’m absolutely thrilled with it.” It doesn’t help that irony is hard to read in print. “That’s what the internet does,” Grant says. “It scrubs humor, and it scrubs context to create little clickbait moments.