Does Hugh Grant need a hit? It looks like it. Either that or he’s going soft in his old age (he’s 49 years old, and I’m joking). My point is that Hugh is out there talking up his new film Did You Hear About the Morgans? It’s like he doesn’t realize the film is awful. Granted, I don’t know if the film is truly terrible, but it certainly looks mind-numbingly bad. Hugh and Sarah Jessica Parker play an estranged, separated couple who witness a mob murder and have to go into witness protection… together. They fall in love all over again, and if you consider that a spoiler, then you have never seen a Hugh Grant movie, so why would you start with this one?

Anyway, Hugh was interviewed by Parade Magazine, and he’s less hardcore than he used to be. Not that he was really butch and punk before, but he had a bit of an edge. Not anymore. Now he just talks ruefully about babies. Seriously! The photographs from Parade are a bit rough too – the man isn’t aging as gracefully as we hoped (slideshow here). The closeup is especially difficult – but I will say that I don’t think Hugh’s had any work done. So, applause!

Embracing the prospect of fatherhood.
“Ten years ago, I wouldn’t have thought about having children at all. But now I have so many nephews and nieces and cousins and godchildren, I like the thought. But that’s on the basis that I can leave after 10 minutes. I don’t know what it would be like 24 hours a day. I think I’d have a lot of nannies.”

Does he think he’ll have children?
“Yes, yes, yes. I haven’t given up hope.”

Does he think he would be a good dad?
“Yes, I do rather. I find I’m not as bad with children as I used to be.”

His hands-off approach to parenthood.
“I see a lot of children over-parented now, by my standards. Over-adored, over-spoiled. I quite like the children left alone to get on with it.”

Indulging in a hobby that is increasingly taking over his life.
“I’m very embarrassed about my golf habit. It’s awful. I wish it had never happened to me. I used to have a well-rounded personality, many interests, and now I don’t really care about anything except golf. I went as a joke [12 years ago]. But I quite liked it. I used to be a big reader. Now I read Dave Pelz’s Putting Bible.”

As a child, he was always putting on plays for the grown-ups.
“Well, it wasn’t me who dressed everyone up in curtains. It was my aunts. But it is true to say I always thought I was the best actor, and I did feel that way at school. It doesn’t mean to say I thought, ‘I want to do this for a living.’ I never felt that.”

His life seems to have settled down some now.
“My laziness is really profound. I’m really interested in where it comes from–it almost feels chemical. And we’ve all got ADD now, short attention span and all that. I found by far the best drug for calming me down is to go out at 5 in the morning and run for 45 minutes. And although I’m calm, I don’t really find life as funny as I do if I’m more miserable and tense.”

His thoughts on what he calls ‘love avoidance.’
“If you have a smothering parent, the effect it can apparently have on a child is to give them, in equal doses, a sense of too much self-esteem, because they are mummy’s little princess or prince, and low self-esteem. It affects future relationships. You want to repeat this smothering thing, and you are very adept at bringing people in to love you, love you, and as soon as they get close enough, you push them away. Then you bring them back and push them away again. You can go on torturing people like that for ages.”

Loving his leading ladies.
“I loved Bullock. And I really love Sarah Jessica. I adore her. She’s very, very original. And funny. Very clever. These girls are amusing and bubbly and charming. You can’t act that. You have to be that.”

[From Parade]

I loved the quote “I see a lot of children over-parented now, by my standards.” Nice hedge, huh? I want to add “by my standards” to everything now. Hugh Grant is a gifted comedic actor, by my standards. His parents thought he was a little prince and spoiled him rotten, ruining him in adulthood, by my standards. This film looks terrible, by my standards.

Photographs courtesy of Parade Magazine.