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Andie MacDowell and Hugh Grant during the Oscars. Photograph: Patrick T Fallon/AFP/Getty Images
Oscars 2023
Hugh Grant gets Oscars off to awkward start on red carpet – before comparing himself to a scrotum on stage
Actor gives Ashley Graham little to work with before the show, but his self-effacing humour gets big laughs during the ceremony
Guardian staff
Mon 13 Mar 2023 00.13 GMT
Hugh Grant got the 2023 Oscars off to an awkward start when flagged down on the champagne carpet by model Ashley Graham, one of the presenters of the Countdown to the Oscars show on US TV.
Graham asked the British actor what his favourite thing about going to the Oscars was, to which he replied, after an agonising pause: “It’s fascinating … the whole of humanity is here … it’s Vanity Fair.”
Graham replied, referring to the famous post-Oscars party thrown by the glossy magazine: “Oh yes, it’s all about Vanity Fair, that’s where we need to let loose and have a little fun.” However, Grant seemed to be referring to the 1848 novel by William Makepeace Thackery.
Clearly deciding that they were on different wavelengths, Grant proceeded to give Graham as little as possible to work with. When she asked: “What are you most excited to see tonight?” he replied: “To see? No one in particular.”
Graham pressed on, asking: “What are you wearing tonight?”
“Just my suit?” replied Grant.
“Who made your suit?” Graham asked. “You didn’t make it?”
“I can’t remember – my tailor,” Grant helpfully replied.
“So tell me what it felt like to be in Glass Onion, it was such an amazing film, I really loved it – I love a thriller,” Graham divulged. “How fun is it to shoot something like that?”
“Well I’m barely in it,” said Grant. “I’m in it for about three seconds.”
“But still you showed up, and you had fun, right?”
“Almost,” said Grant.
Graham gave up and wished him good night, to which the actor responded with a visible eye-roll. Some regarded it as vintage English shade-throwing, but many viewers’ sympathies were with Graham.
Grant won back the crowd later in the evening, when presenting the best production design award with his Four Weddings and a Funeral co-star Andie MacDowell.
“The purpose of this is twofold,” he said. “The first is to raise the vital importance of a good moisturiser. Andie has used one every day of her life, I have not.” Gesturing to MacDowell, he said: “Still stunning.” Gesturing to himself: “Basically a scrotum.”
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