Drew and Hugh talk Music and Lyrics

By: Lovey

LOVEY: Hugh, the film starts with you doing this corny 80s-style film clip. Could you take us through shooting that video?
HUGH GRANT: Mmmm. You’d think it’d be fun, wouldn’t you? 'Cause it looks like it’s fun. (laughs) But of course, it was torture. It was the very end of the shoot, and we’d all had enough of each other. It’s not easy for me. I'm a man of 46. I'm very ill-cast in the film. I'm not a music enthusiast. I don't move very naturally. I don't sing very naturally. I don't exist very naturally. So, I find a lot of the pop stuff incredibly difficult. He’d say, ‘Well, now, let’s just do some isolation shots where it’s just each member of the band standing by themselves and just freaking out.’ Well, I mean, forget it. Forget it. That’s just not going to happen. That’s why I play the keyboards a lot in that 'cause I found it easier if I had a prop.

DREW BARRYMORE: You got your groove on.

HUGH GRANT: Watching the film, I've only got literally one move, which is…

DREW BARRYMORE: The pop hip?

HUGH GRANT: Yeah, pretty much. (laughs) Yeah.

LOVEY: You must have watched a bunch of Duran Duran videos as research?
HUGH GRANT: I did watch a lot of Duran Duran videos, yeah. I watched them at night to send me to sleep.

DREW BARRYMORE: I got you a CD book. I made you a whole thing.

HUGH GRANT: That’s true. Drew was concerned that I had no interest in music, so she bought me a lot of music, which was very kind of her.

DREW BARRYMORE: Yeah. Hundreds of albums. And I put them all into a CD book for him, so he could be inspired.

HUGH GRANT: Yeah.

LOVEY: What albums were they?
DREW BARRYMORE: Everything. Everything from what pertained to the area of this but just a bit of everything. There was everything, from The Clash to Joy Division to Duran Duran to Pat Benatar. I would just see an album and be, like, ‘Oh, he has to have this Mazzy Star album even though it has nothing to do with the movie. It’s so good.’ (laughs)

LOVEY: Did you end up liking any of it?
HUGH GRANT: No, not one of them. (laughs) No, that’s not true, I'm very grateful for them. And they look very good on my shelf. Now I look like a human being because before I only had ‘Godspell.’

LOVEY: Rumour has it that Andrew Lloyd Weber’s mother taught you how to play the piano?
HUGH GRANT: Yes, she did. Briefly. Then I had a tantrum and gave it up.

LOVEY: What was she like?
DREW BARRYMORE: Yeah, really.

HUGH GRANT: She was very nice. It was nothing to do with her. Um, I remember distinctly going around there and I had to sit on three London telephone directories to be able to reach the keyboard. And yeah, we did it for about a month or two. I wish passionately I had gone on with it. I just wish I had.

DREW BARRYMORE: How very posh. You should have seen my musical teacher. He ate salmon and smoked cigarettes and was just, like, totally gross.

HUGH GRANT: (laughs) And that’s how you’ve turned out so musical.

DREW BARRYMORE: (laughs) Right? Exactly. See, Andrew Lloyd Weber/weird, salmon-smoky guy.

HUGH GRANT: Yeah. I’ll just tell you something of what I remember about Andrew Lloyd Weber, actually. I remember it was something his mother was always keen on, which was just, ‘Go for it.’ She said, ‘Just play, just play.’ And I kept saying, ‘Well, I don't know how to play yet.’ She said, ‘Just go for it.’ And she always played very loud and weirdly. I went to a dinner party a couple of years ago in London. Andrew Lloyd Weber was there. And after dinner, he played. And it is deafening. I've never known a man hit the keys harder in my life. People ran screaming into the night with their ears bleeding. (laughs) Very nice chap, but too, too loud. Sorry.

LOVEY: Do each of you have sort of that guilty eighties pleasure that you can talk about?
DREW BARRYMORE: Sure. I mean, I liked a lot of it. We were talking about music of the eighties. I was more into the start of alternative, coming out of the Sex Pistols and punk rock, going into Joy Division, Violent Femmes, New Order, Depeche Mode, and all of those kinds of bands. But then I absolutely loved Madonna, and I was in love with every member of Duran Duran. I had fantasies about marrying all of them. There was so much joyful music that came out of the eighties, you know? I don't understand why anyone would act embarrassed about loving that music because I just think it’s great. It was a great time of life. It seemed very free, and full of optimism and carelessness, and good times. I liked it a lot.

LOVEY: That scene when you guys were singing together. That’s really you singing?
DREW BARRYMORE: Yes. And that’s Hubert, who has a very beautiful voice.

LOVEY: Wow. Were you nervous?
HUGH GRANT: Well, the funny thing is, to begin with, on the whole film, yes, I was incredibly nervous about the singing. And a bit like Drew in that scene, I sounded like a mouse. Nothing came out. But after they’ve done this process now with the computer where basically they can make anyone sound good, you get more and more confident, and in the end, you actually sing much better anyway because you know they can fix you if you don't. So, by the end of the film, yes, I came to quite love the sound of my own voice. In fact, I’d like to sing for you now. (laughs)

DREW BARRYMORE: Adam Schlesinger, too, who was the one conducting our singing sessions.

HUGH GRANT: … who wrote a lot of the music.

DREW BARRYMORE: And produced it, and he really made me feel at ease. I knew that I was having crows and vomit spewing out of my mouth. And he was, like, ‘No, no, it’s okay.’ And he just sort of talked to me, and it’s true.

LOVEY: Are you outing something here? Is his name Hubert?
DREW BARRYMORE: Sorry, I call him that. It’s probably unsexy, I'm sorry. But I just think it’s so cute. (laughs)

LOVEY: That’s not your name, though.
HUGH GRANT: Well, a lot of people have called me Hubert or Mungo, which is my third name.

DREW BARRYMORE: Yes. That’s your middle name, right?

HUGH GRANT: Yeah, yeah.

DREW BARRYMORE: Yeah, Mungo. Hugh Mungo. Get it? (laughs)

HUGH GRANT: Yup, yup. Heard that one, too. (laughs)

LOVEY: What keeps you coming back to the romantic comedy genre?
HUGH GRANT: Listen, I've dabbled in other genres, and I'm not terrible. I can do them. I just I always slightly get the feeling of ‘I'm okay here, but someone else could do this better.’ And then it’s not really actually romantic comedy I'm crazy to do, but things where there’s a bit of comedy around, I'm more comfortable there. Because I just feel I've got something to offer. Rather than being deadly serious.

DREW BARRYMORE: Although you can be.

HUGH GRANT: Yeah, in real life on the set, I am nightmarishly serious (laughs), and angry, and sulky. Poor Drew.

DREW BARRYMORE: You're lovely.

HUGH GRANT: She’s got a lot of lying to do over the next three days. (laughs)

LOVEY: Now rumour has it each of you had extremely different trailers. Is that right?
DREW BARRYMORE: Oh my God, if you walked in our trailers, you would see the night and day of the yin and yang of me and Hubert.

HUGH GRANT: Yeah, Drew’s is all warmth and people, laughter and candlelight; there are fabrics lying everywhere, and things happening, films being made, magazines being shot, and everything. Mine is a dank, empty cell with one furious little Englishman sitting in the corner, grinding his teeth to a fine dust. (laughs) No one’s ever, ever gone in there, I don't think, except a very timid dresser twice a day.