An Englishman Abroad

On the eve of a grand tour of America, the actor talks about sniffing trees and singing for his supper

- Emma Hughes

RICHARD E. GRANT is the godfather you never had—the one who’d have sent you hampers from Fortnums once a term and opened Champagne on the slightest pretext. He would never, ever have forgotten your birthday. The first thing I notice about him is that he really, really wants everyone around him to be having a good time—a rare quality in an actor. The second, even more unusually for someone in his profession, is that he gives the impression of never quite being able to believe his luck.

‘I’m 60 in two blinks and I’m absolutely astonished to be working as much as I am,’ he says earnestly. As we speak, he’s flinging things into suitcases ahead of a six-month stint in America. He’ll spend half that time filming Can You Ever Forgive Me, playing Hollywood biographer turned-forger Lee Israel’s cocaine addled sidekick. Then, it’s off to Chicago, where he’ll be starring as Henry Higgins in My Fair Lady.

It’s the second time he’s taken on the role—his first Prof Higgins (Sydney, 2008) got rave reviews. ‘On the opera circuit, if you’ve done it once and didn’t fall off the stage, they’ll ask you to do it again,’ he deadpans. ‘And you don’t have to be a great singer to play the part. My wife [Joan Washington, who he married in 1986] is an accent coach—a female Henry Higgins— so I’ve sort of been around it for a long time. Also, the opportunity to do the musical with a full-sized orchestra was absolutely irresistible. T. S. Eliot said it was actually an improvement on Shaw’s already brilliant play, so it has a very high pedigree.’