“As a tribe you talk more than I do!” laughs Richard E. Grant “I feel very at home here. I love it!”
The actor is in Brown Thomas on Dublin’s Grafton Street chatting to Hot Press on the occasion of the Irish launch of his second unisex perfume, Jack Covent Garden. His debut scent Jack, launched exclusively in Liberty, London last year, quickly becoming its biggest seller.
Although today he is metaphorically donning his perfumer’s hat he is happy to discuss a variety of topics. Since starring as one of the silver screen’s most famous drunks in 1987’s Withnail And I Grant has become a cherished household name. Further films (Bram Stoker’s Dracula, The Iron Lady, Gosford Park, and, ‘er, SpiceWorld) and small screen turns (Dr. Who, Downton Abbey, Girls) followed, in addition to several presenting gigs such as Hotel Secrets, a behind-the-scenes look in some of the world’s swankiest establishments.
Given his prodigious output we wonder how he managed to fit his new project in?
“My father died when I was 24, at the age of 52. I have outlived him by six years now. Every year past his 52 is a bonus,” he says. “That made such a profound impact on me and my work ethic and has made me fearless about trying to do what I would like to do in the time that I have. Making perfume was a risk. I thought the worst that could happen is nobody buys it and I lose money. That didn’t come to pass. It still could. However, the reviews have been good. My sense is it will do well.”
In terms of his acting exploits, his latest is a television adaptation of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde.
“It’s a 10-part series set in the 1930s and is about the grandson of Jekyll. I am playing the head of the Secret Service,” he notes. “Charlie Higson created the whole series. He is a brilliant mind and has a great sense of humour, as you know from The Fast Show (which Higson co-wrote and performed in). When I met him he asked me how I saw the part. I told him what I thought and he said: ‘Bullseye! That’s exactly what we have in mind’. And I was offered the job.”
Perhaps Richard’s biggest television role yet was in Brit blockbuster Downton Abbey. To what does he attribute its fanatical following?
“I don’t know!” he laughs. “It’s odd. The Asian and American markets are obsessed with it too. The silhouette of our age is somebody with their head bent, looking with intense focus at a mobile phone. So maybe it has to do with seeing another way of life not many generations removed and has the whole upstairs/ downstairs dynamic.”
Closer to the present, one of Richard’s most fulfilling screen performances was as Conservative grandee Michael Heseltine opposite Meryl Streep in Thatcher biopic The Iron Lady.
“Meryl is the best of the best of the best,” he smiles. “She has an absolutely astonishing ability to make all this legend around her - the 16 Oscar nominations, the three wins and all of that - disappear. She engages with you, is incredibly in the moment. She is well read and there is no pretence. The protean nature of her talent is unsurpassed. In my lifetime, nobody comes close.
“And everybody loves her at the same time,” he adds. “Also, she is not Mary Poppins. She is hilarious and sexy. The most surreal moment I remember was when we were filming a corridor scene set in Westminister and, fully dressed as Mrs Thatcher, she would break out into a medley of Abba songs between shoots! So to see Margaret Thatcher channelled by Meryl Streep singing ‘Waterloo’ was most enjoyable!”
Another talented alpha female he had the pleasure of working with was Lena Dunham, creator and star of smash hit Girls. An avowed fan of Grant she cast him as a recovering addict in four episodes of the show.
“Lena is a multi-hyphenate talent. She writes, produces, stars and nurtures everyone on her set,” he enthuses. “She wears her authority over a crew of 120 people with such lightness and dexterity, married to no sense of how much power she really wields. Yet her authority is innate.”
In the series, Grant’s character gets romantically entangled with one of the key cast members, which added to his enjoyment of the experience.
“It was hilarious because I was the same age as most of the girls’ fathers, so to be jumping one of them - Jemima Kirke - was hilarious for me. And probably absolutely horrifying for her!” he laughs. “They were so open, welcoming, accommodating... all the things you could hope for.”
Addicts, fictional and factual, shaped Grant’s life. Withnail was the catalyst for his acting career and on a personal level his upbringing in Swaziland was indelibly marked by his father’s alcoholism.
His parents separated when he was 11 and his father descended into extremely violent alcoholism; he once fired a pistol at his son’s head in a drunken rage. Grant dealt with the issues years later in extensive psychoanalysis, about which he has been very open.
“My father absolutely informed how I play alcoholics,” he nods. “My conviction as a result of how I grew up in that schizoid- addiction-Jekyll-and-Hyde situation is that secrets are inherently toxic. Airing them and talking about them is the best way of ‘de- demonising’ the demons. It has certainly worked for me.”
As for his most famous screen addict Withnail... does he find himself haunted by the character? Is there resentment of any kind?
“Not at all. It opened every door for me,” he states. “I met Peter O’ Toole, who was forever Lawrence of Arabia in people’s eyes and Joel Grey who is forever Master of Ceremonies in Cabaret and Tim Curry who is forever Frank-N-Furter in The Rocky Horror Picture Show. The common denominator is that no matter what else you do that is the thing that people mark you for. I suppose on some level you are not forgiven for not being that person forever more. Then, some actors have only played one part. Thankfully I haven’t been stuck playing alcoholics all my life!
“It is not something I feel negatively about at all,” he adds. “When I realise people are still watching and discovering the film, it is an astonishment to me because next year it is 30 years old. And the fact that people still quote from it is testament to how great the writing is. It essentially deals with failure and the end of a friendship. Most people have encountered failure or have had friendships that were incredibly intense and then dissolve and you never get them back so they are universal themes.”
As our time with the self-professed ‘compulsive smeller’ is nearing its conclusion we ask if there are any more aromatic adventures on the horizon?
“I'm working on a third one as we speak,” he enthuses. “It’s a London landmark name that I have a history with and it has an incredible history of its own but because I’m waiting to see whether I get the trademark application granted I can’t say what the name is!”