Biography

Is allergic to alcohol. He can have a drink and keep it down for about 10 minutes, but will be severely ill for 24 hours afterward.

The initial E in his name came about because there was already someone registered with Equity as Richard Grant. Richard was born Richard Grant Esterhuysen. So with permission of the other Richard Grant and Equity, he added the E. to his name.

Wears two watches. The one on his right wrist was given to him by his late father and has Swaziland time. The one on his left wrist is set to British time.

Loves new smells. Richard believes that smells evoke memories, so he loves to smell new books, cars, sofas, people.

Attended school in Swaziland (South Africa) with Nelson Mandela's daughters Zindzi Mandela and Zenani Mandela where they occasionally appeared in school plays together.

I'm still star-struck. I'm thrilled to say that hasn't changed. I think it has a lot to do with coming from nowhere and going somewhere. Where I grew up all there was in live entertainment was a drive-in cinema. I'm very aware of the leap from there to here. Ultimately, I think I'm too curious and enthusiastic to take any of it for granted.

When an actor asks you to read his script, your heart sinks. The number of scripts I've been given by actors that are so unbelievably terrible! It's well known that actors are lousy writers.

It's a chicken-and-egg situation: You've got to get name actors in order to get the finance, and in order to get the name actors you've got to bullshit that you've got the finance, while all the time you feel the whole thing could just unravel, the wheels come off the pram, everything conspires to make you sink into a pit of self-pity and despair.

Hollywood is on what they call a shit tide, meaning a tide where stuff comes in and goes out very quickly. People come in, get a part in something, get in a magazine, then they go away and you never hear of them again. The sun shines, the level of paranoia is bottomless, and everybody you meet has an agenda. And that's it. Show business, 24 hours a day. If you're doing well, you're a target, nobody's interested in you except how you can be of use to them. And you can't engage with anyone, you can only engage with their agenda. It is all very antisex.

What is there now? Famous people running away from explosions. That's it. They call it production values. Audiences will queue round the block to see an unimaginably highly paid film star running away from a fantastically expensive explosion. They think it's their money's worth. I despair that's what people have to do.