Once known almost exclusively for romantic comedies and period pieces, Hugh Grant's new movie Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, based on the popular fantasy tabletop game, continues his brilliant career shift. With his gift for playing bumbling love interests and charming cads, the British actor often found himself in movies like Notting Hill and Bridget Jones's Diary, but the past few years have been part of his self-aware era in which he's capitalized on the mannerisms he's known for. Now, it appears Grant is in on the joke, and his stuttering delivery and nervous ticks are used with all the self-deprecating aplomb of a parody artist.
In the action comedy directed by Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley, Grant plays Forge Fitzwilliam, the Rogue in a party of misfits assembled by Chris Pine's Bard Edgin. Every member has their own specific Dungeons & Dragons abilities, and the Rogue's must surely include the spell of Grant's disarming charm. This career reinvention, which began with Paddington 2, continued with Glass Onion, and now endures with Honor Among Thieves shows a side of Grant that highlights his other comedic chops and versatility.
Hugh Grant's Career Transformation Is Wild (Especially With D&D)
Grant's career transformation has been wild in recent years, particularly as he's been cast against type in movies like Honor Among Thieves. Having been somewhat typecast as a vulnerable leading man that played up the repressed Englishman trope early in his career, he'd become more of a character actor recently in movies like The Gentlemen. His work playing multiple characters in The Wachowskis' sci-fi epic Cloud Atlas in 2012 made his performance as master of disguise Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2 a few years later feel like a tongue-in-cheek parody.
Honor Among Thieves will have surprise cameos from members of the web series Critical Role, but they'll need to work hard to be as delightful as his cameo in Glass Onion, in which he played Benoit Blanc's sardonic and sourdough-obsessed husband. His nonchalant sarcasm and deadpan humor were in perfect contrast to Daniel Craig's eccentric detective, and his presence elevated an already amusing comedy. Unfortunately, the cameo meant he didn't get to work with the hilarious ensemble cast, something which Honor Among Thieves will definitely fix.
Why Hugh Grant Doesn't Do Romantic Comedies Now
As Grant told The Sydney Morning Herald in 2020, "I got old and ugly, and I'm not appropriate for romantic comedy films anymore, which has been a great blessing," while he might not be as young as he once was, not being pigeonholed in one genre has left him open to tackle everything else. Grant revealed why he joined Dungeons and Dragons' cast, and humor still very much played a part in his decision, as well as being drawn to its story of being an outcast. Grant has always been outspoken about his disdain for celebrity and the media, so a kinship with the D&D misfits seems appropriate.
For someone who has, at certain points in his career, been thought of as a one-trick pony because of his charming stammer and boyish looks, Grant's career reinvention proves naysayers wrong. 2018's A Very English Scandal showed audiences a commanding and powerful side of Grant that had no evidence of the stuttering poets he'd played before, and now Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves can show another facet of Grant's range. Perhaps beneath the foppish hair and shy smile, Grant has always been a Rogue, and now the world is finally catching on.
