While promoting his turn in HBO’s The Undoing, father of the year Hugh Grant shared his secret to making sure his kids fully appreciate his Oscar-worthy performance in Paddington 2. In what is (maybe?) a fictitious anecdote, Grant explained to Seth Meyers how he forces his unruly urchins to respect his work in the sequel after they weren’t exactly thrilled with their first viewing, which came as a shock to Grant as he considers the film to be “kind of a masterpiece.”
“I set up a special screening for them. That takes a whole cinema, I have hundreds of children. I got them in there and they pretty much hated it,” Grant told Meyers. “They kept whispering to me, ‘Why are you in it so much?’ I make them like it now. They have to watch it every night and tell me how good I am, otherwise they don’t get fed.”
That’s one way to do it! You can watch Grant talk all things Paddington 2 with Meyers below:
Jokes aside, Grant genuinely appreciates starring in Paddington 2, and he doesn’t think that’s a low point in his career despite some of the jokes he saw in the media following its release. In fact, he thinks it’s the best film he’s ever made. Via Vanity Fair:
“I was presenting I think at the Golden Globes, and they do that thing when you walk out, and they say, ‘From the forthcoming Paddington 2, Hugh Grant.’ And someone showed me Twitter afterwards, and it was…people were full of derision. ‘Christ, has it come to that. Poor old Hugh. Paddington 2. Sequel to a kids film.’” Grant smiles a bit ruefully. “It’s particularly annoying in the case of Paddington 2, because I genuinely believe it may be the best film I’ve ever been in.”
We’d have to agree, and not because Hugh Grant threatened to starve us.
