While the trailer forBridget Jones: Mad About The Boylooks promising, it is still strange to see series villain Hugh Grant return to rom-com territory after a string of darker roles. Early in his career, Hugh Grant largely steered clear of darker fare. His lone early horror role, 1988’sThe Lair of the White Worm, was a campy, silly supernatural horror-comedy that leaned into the latter over the former. His biggest successes throughout the ‘90s came in the form of romantic period dramas likeSense and Sensibilityand rom-coms. Grant starred in a lot of classic rom-coms.
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Hugh Grant’s new horror movie Heretic proves that he should continue following his career shift that began in 2017 with Paddington 2.
BeforeHugh Grant’s villain performancesbecame his late-career forte, the actor starred inFour Weddings and a Funeral,Nine Months,Notting Hill,Love Actually,Two Weeks Notice, andAbout A Boy. Although he also played a major role in 2001’s successful rom-comBridget Jones’s Diary, this was something of an anomaly in the star’s canon. As the deceitful Daniel Cleaver, Grant played against type and subverted the foppish screen persona he had developed in earlier rom-coms.Heretic’s Mr. Reedproves that Grant took this subversive much further in the decades that followed, gradually becoming an iconic screen villain.
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Now,Bridget Jones: Mad About The Boysees Hugh Grant return to the role of Daniel Cleaver in a belated follow-upto 2016’sBridget Jones’s Baby. Although Cleaver didn’t appear in that sequel, he did play a role in 2004’sBridget Jones: The Edge of Reason. Cleaver is a major antagonist in the series, but it is still strange to see Grant reprise the role after a streak of more serious high-profile villain roles in recent years. Grant’s transition into villain roles began with a project that was ironically even lighter thanBridget Jones’s Diary, 2017’sPaddington 2.
Grant cemented his status as a major movie villain in 2024’s religious horrorHeretic.
After playing the suave Phoenix Buchanan in that cult hit family film, Grant played an odious amoral private eye in 2019’s crime comedyThe Gentlemen. This successful Guy Ritchie collaboration was followed by 2023’sOperation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre, in which Grant played another villain role, and the same year’sDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, wherein the star played a supporting villain. However, Grant cemented his status as a major movie villain in2024’s religious horror movieHeretic, which swiftly became one of the most acclaimed performances of his career. Grant played a seemingly sweet theologian.
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Heretic’s twisty story sees Grant’s charismatic religious aficionado gradually reveal himself to be a monster, and the psychological thriller benefits from Grant’s existing image as a sweet, bumbling everyman.Hugh Grant’s darkHereticrole won him acclaim but it wasn’t his first successful villain performance, and reviewers highlighted his performances in bothPaddington 2andThe Gentlemenas high points in the two movies. It makes sense for Grant to now return as Daniel Cleaver since, however indirectly, his role inBridget Jones’s Diaryhelped shape his late-career villain roles.
After convincing as the sleazy, duplicitous Cleaver, Grant parlayed this success into a darker role in 2006’sAmerican Dreamz. This bleak entertainment industry satire saw Grant play a broad parody of Simon Cowell, but the movie’s underperformance meant it was a few years before Grant returned to darker stories. Long beforeBridget Jones: Mad About The Boy, Grant appeared as a villain in 2012’s sprawling, ambitious sci-fi epicCloud Atlas, but the movie’s unique structure means that he played various roles in the same story.
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Meanwhile, underwhelming reviews gradually drew Grant away from the world of rom-coms.Rom-coms were central to Grant’s early career success, but the actor’s later entries into the genre fared poorly. 2007’sMusic and Lyricsearned mixed reviews, while 2009’sDid You Hear About the Morgans?was critically reviled. 2014’sThe Rewritewas Grant’s last rom-com, but the Marisa Tomei vehicle failed to find an audience despite reuniting Grant withTwo Weeks Noticewriter/director Marc Lawrence. AfterThe Rewriteflopped, Grant wisely began his shift toward villain roles.
WhileHugh Grant’s best rom-comroles include some classic entries into the genre, it is fair to say that the actor’s transition into playing villains has been equally successful.Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerreunderperformed at the box office, butDungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieveswas well received by both critics and fans of the game. His performance inThe Gentlemenwas a high point in an otherwise uneven Ritchie outing, andHereticwas an outright revelation for the familiar star. As such, it is bizarre to see Hugh Grant back in rom-com mode forBridget Jones: Mad About The Boy.
