30 December 2023 , 21:00
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Four Weddings and a Funeral is now regarded as one of the most influential, not to mention quotable, romantic comedies of all time, but before its blockbuster success, there was plenty of uncertainty behind the scenes.
There are very few who aren't familiar with the premise of the quintessentially British 1994 film, which follows a group of friends as they attend a series of weddings, all the while contemplating the meaning of marriage. The will-they-won't-they couple at the heart of the story is Charles (Hugh Grant) and Carrie (Andie MacDowell), whose rain-soaked declaration of love ranks among the most iconic in rom-com history.
As impossible as it might be to imagine looking back, there were a fair few nerves behind the scenes, and even leading man Hugh, now 63, feared it would be a 'giant turkey'.
Screenwriter Richard Curtis wasn't at all keen on Hugh at first (FOUR WEDDINGS AND A FUNERAL © 1994 ORION PICTURES CORPORATION. All Rights Reserved)Seriously awkward audition
It's difficult to imagine anyone else in the role of Charles, which of course cemented Hugh's reputation as the charming, yet often bumbling, romantic hero of the '90s. Unfortunately, Four Weddings screenwriter Richard Curtis wasn't exactly keen on Hugh from the get-go, and his apparent animosity was felt right the way through his life-changing audition.
Speaking ahead of the 2019 Four Weddings reunion for Comic Relief, Hugh recalled: "[My audition] was in front of Mike Newell, the director, who seemed to quite like me, and Richard Curtis, who seemed to want me dead. He really hated me. Apparently there was a bit of a fight between them.... and Richard didn't want me at all."
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Fortunately, Richard had 'his arm twisted' by Mike, and the rest, as they say, is history. Richard, now 67, has since opened up about his qualms over casting Hugh, whom he regarded as too handsome for the role of frequently flustered Charles. Speaking at the Cheltenham Literature Festival in 2014, Richard explained: "The absolutely key thing for that film when I was writing it was that the person who was playing the lead would not be good-looking. That was the absolute starting thesis of the film. So when finally we'd auditioned every single young person in the country and we were voting, me, Mike [Newell, the director] and Duncan [Kenworthy, producer], two people voted for Hugh – that was them. And I voted for someone else."
Richard's first choice was the late Alan Rickman, who he felt at the time would be much more suitable. Fortunately, Richard needn't have fretted over Hugh being 'too posh and too annoying', and it would appear he now has no regrets whatsoever about going against his starting thesis. Hugh's memorable performance earned him a Golden Globe for Best Actor, and sparked the beginning of a highly successful working relationship between the pair. Hugh went on to star in a number of films penned by Richard, including Notting Hill (1999), Bridget Jones' Diary (2001), and Love Actually (2003).
Hugh recalls life on set being a 'blind panic' (Alamy Stock Photo)Hugh's fears over 'giant turkey'
In his autobiography Did I Ever Tell You This?, which was published earlier this year, Hugh's friend and former Sirens (1994) co-star Sam Neill revealed that Hugh had initially harboured a fair few doubts about Four Weddings, which he once blasted as 'a piece of complete crap'. Sam, now 76, wrote: "I had dinner in London with Hugh Grant soon after Sirens. I asked him what he'd been up to. 'Oh,' he said, 'a piece of complete crap called Four Weddings and a Funeral … Disaster. Absolute and utter rubbish'."
Confirming the anecdote was indeed true in a statement given to IndieWire, Hugh confessed: "I love Sam and miss him, and it's true that we were all sure we'd made a giant turkey till the film had its first previews. I was clearly wrong and the film changed my life. It was the beginning of a happy friendship with Richard Curtis, and I've always had the greatest respect for Mike Newell who taught me things I use to this day."
Hugh also previously opened up about the chaotic process of filming Four Weddings in Sky Arts' BAFTA: Life in Pictures back in 2019, recalling: "It was shot in 36 days in a blind panic, with Mike Newell hurling teacups at the wall, saying, 'I can't f***ing do it'. He continued: "There wasn’t a laugh in it – well, Rowan [Atkinson] was funny. The rest of it was just awful. And I had to be helped, sobbing, back on to the set... We thought we were going to have to emigrate to Peru because it was so embarrassing."
Thankfully, despite having a modest budget of less than £3 million, Four Weddings turned out to be a commercial and critical triumph, rising to become Britain's most successful romantic comedy ever made. In 1999, the by then firm favourite was ranked at number 23 on the British Film Institute's list of the 100 greatest British films of the 20th century.
You can catch Four Weddings and a Funeral on Channel 4 at 10pm, December 30