Hugh Grant, famous as an actor and for one particularly embarrassing scandal involving a woman, suffers with anxiety. In particular, he has panic attacks at work.
Entertainment Weekly interviewed him and his costars in the film
Florence Foster Jenkins. and he divulged.
Hugh Grant: Florence Foster Jenkins star discusses panic attacks while acting | EW.com
[Hugh Grant's] reluctance to act surely comes in part from the anxiety that arises when he’s in front of the camera. “I have this absurd syndrome where I get these out-of-the-blue pathetic panic attacks,” Grant says. “It’ll be in a very easy, simple scene when everything is going swimmingly, and then suddenly, bang, I’m shvitzing and can’t remember my lines.”
These episodes began during 1999’s Notting Hill, and nothing he’s tried — therapy, herbal pills, running in the morning — has stopped them. “At one stage I was asking directors not to say ‘Action’ because I found that the word sent me into paroxysms of terror,” Grant says. “Frankly, I think I’m marvelous in rehearsal! Then you turn the camera on, and it gets stiff and tight. And then you trudge back to your trailer feeling sad. That’s been my experience of film acting.”
Those who know him are quick to point out that Grant is his own harshest critic. “He is very hard on himself,” his Florence Foster Jenkins costar, Meryl Streep, says via email. “Deft as he is, he wants it to be perfect.”
Another co-star, Simon Helberg, says: “He cares so tremendously about the film and he worries about it a lot. Because he’s a perfectionist. He is always so incredibly prepared.”
- Jon O