Hugh on earth is that? Star's SIX roles in one film... and not one of them is a stuttering rom-com toff!
- Takes on the plethora of roles in new £65 million film Cloud Atlas
- Roles include the head of a cannibal chief and the boss of a nuclear plant
- Said he enjoyed playing character who 'does a lot of pillaging and throat-slitting'
- The film also stars Tom Hanks, Halle Berry and Skyfall star Ben Wishaw
|
Hugh Grant has played the archetypal romantic fop so many times that even he jokes that he has only got one string to his bow.
But now the Love Actually star has proved his critics wrong by taking on no fewer than six wildly different roles in his new film, Cloud Atlas.
Grant looks unrecognisable as many of the characters, especially as the head of a murderous cannibal tribe that terrorises a post-apocalyptic Hawaii.
Killer look: Hugh Grant plays six roles in the film Cloud Atlas, including cannibal tribesman Kona Chief, which required two hours in makeup
Pillaging: Grant, who also plays the manager of a futuristic diner, said he reveled in the chance to do some 'pillaging and throat-slitting' in the film
It took two hours every day to transform an actor best known for playing stuttering upper-class romantic leads into the ‘spectacularly evil’ Kona Chief, with terrifying body paint and tattoos.
Grant, 52, said: ‘I was quite intrigued by the story, which is brilliant, but I would have done it just for the chance to be cannibal chief who does a lot of pillaging and throat-slitting.
'There wasn’t much throat-slitting in Sense And Sensibility.’
Grant also plays a 19th Century clergyman, the sinister boss of a nuclear plant, a hotel ‘heavy’, an elderly publisher who breaks out of a tyrannical care home, and the manager of a futuristic diner.
The plot comprises six interlinked storylines spanning more than 500 years, and most actors in the film – including Tom Hanks, Halle Berry, Hugo Weaving and Skyfall star Ben Whishaw – play different characters in the various strands.
Not so suave: Grant, playing care home Denholme Cavendish, left, is most well-known for his rom-com roles
Grant quipped: ‘When they offered me these parts I thought, “Yes, I can show people I have got more strings to my bow than just one.” But a) I was wrong and b) it’s just sitting in make-up having plastic applied to your face for hours.’
But the star said playing the cannibal had been his favourite, joking: ‘I’ve kept the costume. I slip into it sometimes of an evening just to watch the telly. I feel comfortable like that.’
His transformations were so convincing that co-star Jim Broadbent – who appeared alongside Grant in Bridget Jones’s Diary – said he realised it was Grant only when the actor swore at him.
True to type: As nuclear plant boss Lloyd Hooks, Grant is back to his usual self
The £65 million adaptation of novelist David Mitchell’s 2004 epic is the most expensive independent movie ever, but has divided opinion.
It earned a ten-minute standing ovation at last year’s Toronto Film Festival, but some critics have accused the film – which runs for almost three hours – of rambling.
However, several reviewers singled out Grant for praise, and one said he was ‘clearly having a blast’ playing the villains.
Cloud Atlas opens in the UK on February 22.
Read more: http://www.dailymail.co.uk/tvshowbiz/article-2272526/Hugh-earth-Stars-SIX-roles-film--stuttering-rom-com-toff.html#ixzz2Jn78tro2
Follow us: @MailOnline on Twitter | DailyMail on Facebook
