InfidelWriter-directors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods’ surprising new A24 horror movie begins with a question: Why would two young female Mormon missionaries break into a sketchy old man’s house despite strict instructions never to do so unless a woman is present? And why would they stay when it was obvious to everyone in the audience that he was a deranged creep as he screamed for them to get out? The answer to the movie is simple: Because he’s Hugh Grant.

Grant entered cinema as an object of desire. Merchant in Ivory production mauriceBased on a gay romance that EM Forster wrote in 1913 but kept secret until his death in 1970, Grant is as beautiful as a man ever seen on the big screen, with dark, liquid eyes and a pale, delicate face that could be white-skinned. It was made by a Greek master. With his wild, floppy hair, Grant was attractive and mysterious; the following year he played Lord Byron. maurice— but it wasn’t until then Four Weddings and a Funeral He said he discovered the secret to his future success: playing characters who didn’t realize they looked like Hugh Grant. Inside Four Weddings And Notting HillGorgeous women like Andie MacDowell and Julia Roberts, to name just two of the now-classic rom-coms that follow, nearly throw themselves at his feet, but he’s so exhausted he doesn’t even notice. Four Weddings he jokes about not being able to arrive on time for any of said weddings, including his own, but even in movies where he’s not surrounded by alarm clocks, he exudes the energy of someone who’s always late. If his signature had one expression, it would be: “Oh my God, HE time?

Grant’s ability to constantly confuse made him the romantic comedy ideal; dazzling but friendly, tongue-tied but pure of heart. Inside Notting HillShe overhears a group of men making rude remarks about the Hollywood movie star with whom she is enjoying an unexpected date, and leaps to his defense before realizing that he can only awkwardly stammer at the offenders. (From this moment on his personality is addressed “Mr Stuttery Blinky”) But it also allows him to get away with the kind of pretty awful behavior we’d be less inclined to forgive if he weren’t such an endearing mess. Inside Four WeddingsHe leaves his bride stranded at the altar and Actually LoveHe reassigns one of his subordinates when he catches her kissing another man, but we forgive him, or at least we should, because there’s no ill will involved, just the romantic ineptitude of a man who is the last to know what he wants.

Inside Bridget Jones’s Diarypublished two years later Notting HillGrant begins to let us see the sinister side of this attraction. The brutally arrogant publishing executive begins an affair with Renée Zellweger’s publicity assistant, and although the sex is great and he’s clear that he intends to keep it casual, he neglects to mention that he’s engaged to another woman. After her fiancée leaves her, she comes running back, promises her love and admits that he is “a terrible disaster with his pretentious voice and bad character”; It’s a disarming confession that will leave viewers of Grant’s previous films in a state of willing goo. However, this is not the case for Bridget Jones. Her character may be finally looking for love after a lifetime of tomcatting, but she’s not ready for it and it’s not worth the trouble.

Although Grant wouldn’t stay away from romantic comedies for a few more years, he’s only done one since 2009. Bridget Jones slated for next year – his willingness to play a shameless dude showed him moving beyond his anxious but irresistible lead and gave us the first stirrings of what we might call his villain era. 2012s Cloud Atlas, A centuries-spanning sci-fi epic in which Grant taped his eyelids to play the sexually abusive manager of a Korean diner, it felt like a seared farewell to the era of cute; He thinks the film allowed him to: “I enjoy acting” again—but it wasn’t until 2017 Paddington 2 He decided what to do next: play bad guys with gusto.

Phoenix Buchanan, the jaded actor whose devious machinations landed Paddington in prison, sees himself as we see Hugh Grant: an actor brimming with charisma, with cheerful eye wrinkles that anyone can ignore. But Phoenix is ​​well past its prime, which wasn’t all that impressive to begin with; Although the villain’s lair is filled with memorabilia from past victories, the only evidence we see of him plying his craft is selling pet food in a tattered dog costume. This is a risky episode in a way; a star once known for his good looks displays his own vanity; He is modeled so closely on the character he portrays that in early drafts, the film’s writers chose the film’s writers. I simply named the character “Hugh Grant”– but Grant dives in without any arrogance of his own, treating his now-familiar mannerisms like the worn-out ramblings of an aging hack. And it’s a pleasure.

In the 2020 miniseries RetrievalGrant stars opposite Nicole Kidman as one half of a wealthy Manhattan couple; He seems like the perfect husband and father, until a young woman with whom he was having an affair dies. The series plays on his wife and us having a hard time accepting that someone so seemingly harmless would brutally crush his mistress’s skull with a hammer, keeping us in a state of suspended disbelief until we can confirm he’s done just that. There is something particularly chilling about having to confront our reluctance to accept the terrible truth about someone we thought we knew, who could not possibly have done such a thing.

Grant, once America’s sweetheart, has now become its heel. Inside Dungeons and Dragons: Honor Among ThievesHe is a dishonorable thief, a treacherous trickster who betrays his former comrades with a grin. Inside WonkaHe takes on the role of a jaundiced Oompa Loompa named Lofty, a sullen sidekick who frowns rather than whistles while working. (He used the film’s press tour to talk about how much it meant. He hated role playingBut his dissatisfaction was so funny that it’s hard to tell whether this was on par or just an extension of the piece.) Both films earned hundreds of millions of dollars at the box office, proving that audiences loved to hate Grant just as much as they once did. he loved loving her.

Grant’s character InfidelMr Reed, is based on the same assumption. He greets the young women, Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) and Paxton (Chloe East), at his door like a grumpy old man, assuring them that it’s safe to come in because his wife is baking pies in the other room. They’re locked inside when they realize there’s no wife (and no cake either), but Mr. Reed continues his charm, even as he reveals they’ll never get out of there alive. Mr. Reed, in his colorful cardigan and orange-tinted glasses, his cute wavy hair now greasy, has more self-confidence than he could ever possibly earn; thinks He looks like Hugh Grant. And although the worst torture he inflicts on his young captives is a lecture on the history of organized religion, delivered with the smug superiority of a self-proclaimed expert who’s spent a few hours scrolling through Reddit, there are more physical threats awaiting them. . Grant delivers a speech that is both gripping and propulsive, also covering a Radiohead song and the history of the board game Monopoly. And he punctuates his ramblings with a move that will be instantly familiar to anyone familiar with the pinnacle of romantic comedy; with a kind of apologetic, squinty-eyed, whisper-like grin: Can you blame me?

in one view Jimmy Kimmel Live Grant last week recreated iconic horror movie lines They add an amused grin to “Hello Clarice” as if it were rom-com dialogue, and chirp “The power of Jesus pushes you” as if it were a welcome line. But his performance Infidel suggests there is less daylight across species than thought. Like a bumbling romantic comedy leading man, a horror movie villain often uses the appearance of vulnerability to get his prey to lower his guard. (Think Buffalo Bill wearing a fake cast.) Grant left romantic comedies behind because “very old, fat and uglyfor the genre, but it clearly relishes the opportunity to surprise its older audiences a bit. When an interviewer InfidelWhen asked at the premiere of whether it was difficult to leave a role like Mr. Reed on set, Grant humorously said: “That’s still important to me; I killed three people this afternoon.” Then he added with a familiar wink: “I feel terrible. HE.”