He’s over the (Notting) hill.
Hugh Grant joked Monday that the reason he isn’t cast in romantic comedies any more is due to the fact that he got “too old and fat.”
“I got too old and fat and ugly to do romantic comedies, obviously,” Grant, 63, told talk show host Drew Barrymore Monday. “So I got offered more interesting things.”
Grant became a household name after starring in movies such as “Notting Hill,” “Love Actually,” “Two Weeks Notice” and “Bridget Jones’ Diary.”
“I got a bit better,” the British native said regarding his acting abilities. “I got a little less bad after I had children, got married, got happier.”
Despite Grant’s pleasure at finally starting to focus on character roles, including the primary villain of the 2017 film “Paddington 2,” Barrymore is reportedly holding out hope that Grant will return to the realm of rom-coms.
“We should do another one,” the “Charlie’s Angels” alum, who worked with Grant in 2007’s “Music and Lyrics,” said.
Grant’s return to rom-coms seems unlikely, however, because he was never a fan of the genre in the first place.
“I love those films. I love the fact that people still like them, but I never felt comfortable really doing them,” he told Barrymore. “I don’t know about you, but I prefer more of a mask. I want to be someone else. Then it frees me up and then I quite like acting.”
Grant can be seen playing an Oompa Loompa in the upcoming “Wonka” film starring Timothée Chalamet.
“It was like a crown of thorns, very uncomfortable,” Grant told Metro of his less than a scrumdiddlyumptious time working with motion technology to capture his body movements. “I made a big fuss about it. I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more.”
According to the Emmy nominee, he had no idea if he should “act with my body or not” and reportedly “never received a satisfactory answer” when he asked.
“And frankly, what I did with my body was terrible, and it’s all been replaced with an animator,” Grant explained, adding that the final product was “not really” worth it. “I slightly hate [making films] but I have lots of children and need money.”
Grant’s casting as the chocolatier’s green-haired helper was mired in controversy when two actors with dwarfism called the “Dungeons & Dragons” star out.
“A lot of people, myself included, argue that dwarfs should be offered everyday roles in dramas and soaps, but we aren’t getting offered those roles,” George Coppen told the BBC earlier this year. “One door is being closed but they have forgotten to open the next one.”
According to Coppen, 26, it feels like those who have the genetic condition are “being pushed out of the industry we love.”
Dylan Postl also slammed the casting of the “Four Weddings and a Funeral” star.
“These roles — roles in Hollywood in general — are very hard for people of my community to get, besides the elf and the leprechaun,” Postl, 37, said during an interview with Piers Morgan. “So why are they being taken from my community?”
“Wonka” is scheduled to hit theaters Dec. 15.