Hugh Grant’s surprising career regret despite decades-long career

Despite being known as one of Hollywood’s infamous romantic leads, Hugh Grant made a shocking admission about his career. As he reflected on his starring roles across the romantic comedy genre, the actor candidly admitted that he wished his decades on screen had gone in a different direction. Although he made his film debut in 1985, Hugh burst onto the scene in 1994 with his breakthrough role in the blockbuster film Four Weddings and a Funeral and has since remained a firm favourite actor for romantic comedies.

After becoming an overnight international sensation, he went on to star in beloved movies including Notting Hill, Love Actually and Bridget Jones's Diary. Despite being lovingly dubbed as the “King of Romcoms,” Hugh wished he had been more knowledgeable about “navigating fame and success". During a roundtable interview with The Hollywood Reporter, the 64-year-old reflected: “Every decision I ever made was probably wrong.” Hugh explained: “After Four Weddings and a Funeral, and the world was my oyster, I should've made interesting decisions and done different stuff.

“Instead, I repeated myself almost identically about 17 times in a row,” adding: “I took everything. The worse it was, the quicker I took it.”

During the 1990s and early 2000s, Hugh was the go-to actor for romcoms and also starred in Two Weeks Notice, Nine Months and Mickey Blue Eyes.

Despite his regret, the actor acknowledged: “I was being paid tons of money. I was very lucky.

“And most of those romantic comedies I can look squarely in the face – one or two are shockers, but on the whole, I can look them in the face and people like them.”

Hugh continued: “I am a big believer that our job is to entertain. It’s not to practice some weird, quasi-religious experience. I see us as craftsmen, along with the guy who does the lights and the guy who edits and the guy who pushes the dolly.”

As for the film he’d like to erase from his filmography, Hugh told James Corden it would be the 1988 movie The Lady and the Highwayman.

During the Spill Your Guts or Fill Your Guts segment on The Late Late Show With James Corden, he said: “Film made for television. I'm a highwayman, I'm meant to be sexy,” but Hugh noted the “low budget, bad wig, bad hat” and remarked: “I look like Deputy Dawg.”

Since this 2019 admission, Hugh has been able to flex his acting skills outside the world of romantic comedy, having led the cast in 2024’s unsettling horror film Heretic.

The A24 production proved to be a major hit as it landed an impressive 91% score on Rotten Tomatoes.