ABSTRACT

In the last decade, Hugh Grant has been going through something resembling a career revival. After retreating from his roles as an English gentleman and romantic lead during the mid-2000s, Grant has recently re-emerged to garner critical acclaim in productions, such as Paddington 2 (2017), The Gentlemen (2019), and The Undoing (2020). What these roles have in common is that Grant has abandoned his days as prince charming in favour of a series of unlikeable characters and morally complex villains. This article analyses how this turn to villain signifies a renegotiation of Hugh Grant’s star image and how this career revival stands into contact with his previous persona. Combining a close reading of some of Grant’s recent films, together with a discussion of press discourse and interviews, I account for how Grant’s villain performances are shaped and mediated by different artistic, commercial, and discursive forces. As such, I elucidate how Grant’s renegotiation of his image helps distances himself from his previous career phase, is utilised by filmmakers to subvert audience expectations, and invites us to question the patriarchal and English imperialist attitudes that lay embedded in his previous performances.

摘要

在过去的十年里，休格兰特一直在经历类似于职业复兴的事情。在 2000 年代中期退出英国绅士和浪漫主角的角色后，格兰特最近重新出现并在《帕丁顿熊 2》(2017)、《绅士》(2019) 和《毁灭》等作品中获得好评（2020）。这些角色的共同点是，格兰特已经放弃了他作为白马王子的日子，转而支持一系列令人讨厌的角色和道德复杂的恶棍。这篇文章分析了这次反派如何意味着休·格兰特明星形象的重新谈判，以及这种职业复兴如何与他以前的角色联系起来。结合对格兰特最近的一些电影的仔细阅读，以及对新闻话语和采访的讨论，我解释了格兰特的恶棍表演是如何被不同的艺术、商业和话语力量塑造和调解的。因此，我阐明了格兰特对自己形象的重新谈判如何帮助他与之前的职业生涯拉开距离，电影制作人如何利用它来颠覆观众的期望，