From melodrama to crime: 7 bright roles of Hugh Grant, where he is not a romantic handsome man, but a dangerous and insidious type (9 photos)

Famous actors who noticeably change their roles with age - the situation is not surprising. Just remember Lesnie Nielsen, Matthew McConaughey or Robert Pattinson. Today we will remember another such metamorphosis.





63-year-old Hugh Grant has long since moved from the image of a handsome young man, the hero of a rom-com, to the category of actors who are most often invited to play the role of someone who is not to be joked with. As Grant himself admitted, he is “too old and scary” to play in another “Notting Hilly” or “Sense and Sensibility.” Therefore, the actor happily accepts invitations from Guy Ritchie when he invites Grant to play the role of someone ambiguous or even slippery in his new film.

Let's look at 7 roles from the second half of Hugh Grant's career in projects where he, although not always an obvious villain, definitely lacks the typical aura of a romantic hero-lover from his past.

But his characters certainly haven’t lost their charisma and wit!

Cloud Atlas (2012)







In this amazing film, Hugh Grant played several characters in different parallel stories, and all of them were unpleasant. But the fearsome leader of the Konov tribe especially broke the audience’s templates - we had never seen such a Hugh Grant at that time.

Gentlemen (2019)



One of the first to recognize Hugh Grant's talent for playing cynics with a criminal bent was Guy Ritchie. He called the actor to play the role of the unpleasant (but charismatic) blackmailer Fletcher, and Grant fit like a glove into the atmosphere of another gangster showdown from Richie, which is “The Gentlemen”.

The Adventures of Paddington 2 (2017)



Before playing villains in serious films, Hugh Grant, in the name of a smooth transition, played the role of a criminal in a cute family film about a painted bear cub. His hero is a failed actor who dreams of finding treasure.

Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves (2023)



A fresh adaptation of the famous tabletop role-playing games Dungeons & Dragons, in which the hero Grant knows less than all the other characters what honor is. This is a bit of a spoiler, but would you be surprised by yet another villainous turn from Grant?

Agents of U.N.C.L.E. (2015)



Again Guy Ritchie and again the intermediate stage of Hugh Grant’s “villain transition”. In this film, he is not a villain (he played the director of the British Naval Intelligence Office), but he is already an extremely dangerous man with gray hair, wrinkles and dark glasses.

Play it back (mini-series, 2020)



Grant's charming but creepy pediatric oncologist Jonathan Fraser is on trial for the murder of his mistress and drags his wife, played by Nicole Kidman, into the story. The actor delivers a stunning performance that once again subverts his former suavely handsome screen persona in the darkest and most delightful ways. It's hard to imagine another actor who could play such a convincing scoundrel.

It is not surprising that Grant received a Golden Globe nomination for this role.

Operation Fortune: The Art of Victory (2022)



Guy Ritchie + Hugh Grant = another gangster showdown, where the latter plays a cunning billionaire selling weapons. The actor is again wearing dark glasses, he is cynical, cunning and powerful - what we love in this new and every year more and more familiar Hugh Grant.

Which film with the famous Briton is your favorite? And what part of his career do you like best? Early melodramatic or late crime-comedy?