British actor Hugh Grant has reminisced about the days before hooking up with fellow thespians became ‘sad’ thanks to technology, jokingly longing for the thrill of the on-set romances from the good old days.
During an appearance on The Late Show with Stephen Colbert, the actor, who is notorious for his reputation with the ladies, commented that the enjoyable aspect of on-set romances has significantly changed since his earlier days in the industry.
“Films are so weird now,” the former playboy said.
“They are weird because, in the old days, by the end of the second week, you were all getting drunk in the evening and having dinner and falling in love with each other and all of that.
“All of that stopped because of telephones. Everyone goes home and looks at Twitter. It’s so sad.”
Colbert clarified: “If there weren’t telephones on set there’d be more affairs going on?”
“Yeah, I think so,” Grant replied.
“You know, Tarantino (film director Quentin Tarantino) bans telephones from the set, quite right too.”
He cheekily joked: “And you know, then the people all on set there do shag each other, so I’m told.”
The actor’s playboy reputation saw him act as the main love interest in a number of his films, including classic favourites Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’s Diary, Love Actually, and Four Weddings and a Funeral.
Grant’s on-set antics led him to date his former girlfriend, Elizabeth Hurley, after the pair met on the set of the Spanish film, Remando Al Viento in 1988, before their amicable split in 2000.
Despite his tongue-in-cheek remarks, Grant settled down in 2018 with TV producer, Anna Eberstein. Grant and Eberstein have three children together, and the actor also has two children with Tinglan Hong, a former waitress with whom he had a romantic relationship.
In a 2020 interview with Virgin Radio, the star said his belief about marriage had been false.
“Well, I was wrong, I was just plain wrong,” he said, referring to bachelorhood.
“And children, you know. I used to roll my eyes. People would say, ‘Oh Hugh you don’t understand it’, but they were right.”
The star is currently out promoting his upcoming film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, in which he departs from his typical ladies’ man role, but still uses all of his natural charms to play a skilled con man.