Hugh Grant has called the ending to Notting Hill “nauseating” while explaining a small Easter egg in the scene.
The actor, who plays bookstore owner William Thacker in the 1999 rom-com opposite Julia Roberts, discussed a detail in the film’s ending during a Wired video interview.
In the scene, Anna Scott (Roberts) is seen lying on William on a park bench as he reads a specific novel, which carried additional meaning for the late director Robert Michell.
“In that nauseating moment on the bench at the end, I’m reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières, which was going to be his next film,” Grant said. “So it’s a little in-joke from Roger Michell, God rest his soul.”
Michell died aged 65 in September 2021. Along with Notting Hill, he directed the films Venus, Changing Lanes and The Mother.
Elsewhere in the interview, Grant took a jibe at his Music And Lyrics co-star Drew Barrymore for her “horrendous” singing.
“I’m auto-tuned a bit, but not as much as some,” Grant said. “Drew Barrymore is in that film with me and I don’t think she’d mind me saying, her singing is just horrendous. I’ve heard dogs bark better than she sings.
“But having said that once they tuned her up, she sounded way better than me because she’s got heart and voice and rock ‘n’ roll. Whereas I sounded like Julie Andrews and I’m meant to be rock ‘n’ roll as well.”
Grant stars alongside Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez in upcoming film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, from directors Jonathan Goldstein and John Francis Daley. The film is released in cinemas on March 31.