i think he's PERFECT in this role. every time i see it, i think it's probably his best performance. he just fits the part so well, i wonder if he is similar to the character in real life. because he seems like he might be
shareThat's called great acting. :)
shareI think it shows his acting off better than his other roles.
However, in an interview when asked what his favorite role was he immediately said Edward in Sense and Sensiblity. That character is about as far from Will in About a Boy as you can get.
I like him a lot, and hate when he chooses something I think is inferior to his talent, e.g., Mickey Blue Eyes.
I think he plays a role similar to About a Boy in Music and Lyrics, but it's not as affecting, somehow. But it is about a fairly shallow, materialistic, funny person who develops into something deeper under the influence of a relationship.
Another similar kind of role.. although a bit more on the mature side of it, was his role in "Love Actually" as the British Prime Minister. He's still very much a kid inside.. but repressed it. Obviously though he did have kind of a woman chasing sensibility (although not seem but his sister mentions it). But he comes to realize something about himself through the film.. much actually like his role in "Nine Months". The kind of self contented like things how they are happy without the extension of family.. who freaks out and kind of comes to see things.
If anything else I can say about Grant.. his always has played that kind of transition in character seamlessly and wonderfully.
You are quite right regarding this role being one that pretty much sums up Hugh Grant's real life persona. He said as much in an interview.
He may change a bit though now he has fathered a child but he was always a bit of a bachelor boy and a bit self-indulgent.
Another role I felt suited him was his role in Nine Weeks with Julianne Moore.
It's rarely the people at war, it's the megalomaniac leaders at war.
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I think he's brilliant as Clive Durham in "Maurice"; he plays an upper-class boy at Cambridge @ 1909, who falls in love with his friend Maurice, a middle-class boy.
He's really the second lead in the film (hence, it's called 'Maurice', not 'Clive'!), but he's really good at portraying the angst of being upper-class and gay at that time in Britain (it was a jailable offense at that time). Clive is a total twit, but Hugh gives a really affecting performance. The movie is even moreso about the differences in the class structure at the time. It's worth catching.
But he's really great in About A Boy; I think this is my second-favorite role of his.
He was also good in "Sirens", playing an uptight reverend who travels to New Zealand in the 1920's to intervene wich a 'shocking' art exhibit by bohemian artist Norman Lindsay.
I also liked him as Edward Ferrars in "Sense and Sensibility", even though he looked kind of hunchy in his costume!