has well and truly been during the promotional tour for his with Timothée Chalamet – and fans are absolutely loving it.
, who famously – which is a prequel origin story about Roald Dahl’s eccentric chocolatier – has often been paired with his cheerful 27-year-old co-star in interviews.
And this, of course, only highlights the difference in attitude between an older, , and a younger, more enthusiastic American.
One clip that’s been dong the rounds on Twitter shows Timothée and Hugh introducing the character they play in French, leading to the gem: ‘Je joue le Oompa Loompa.’
However, it’s not just what Hugh has said but more the way he says it – with an extremely grave face and a hint of a pained grimace-cum-smile at the end – that captured fans’ attention.
‘I’ve watched this maybe 50 times already,’ admitted Caitie Delaney on X (formerly known as Twitter).
‘It is rich in detail. You can see the disappointment, the fatigue in Hugh’s eyes as he finishes his petit French sentence. The half-second long smirk at the end tells a story of lost youth, dysphoria by commercialism,’ she added.
‘Lol it’s the tone of the whole press tour,’ responded Dawn Weiners, while @eggsyweggsies quipped: ‘He looks like he’s admitting to a crime.’
‘Hugh Grant is always deeply unserious in interviews,’ chimed in @augustsrain on the Paddington 2 actor’s approach.
‘Has any actor ever regretted their decisions more visibly than Hugh Grant in this moment,’ asked critic Isaac Feldberg online of the same clip, to which @thanhitchybon merely responded: ‘You must be new to Hugh Grant.’
‘Hugh Grant’s energy is what I bring everyday,’ wrote @ourdawniz, clearly feeling the relatability in the exchange.
Meanwhile, MTV UK Movies producer Claire Rowden wrote: ‘This is killing me. I keep thinking about it every twenty or so minutes and start laughing to myself. He’s so angry about it. He’s so angry he has to say it.’
‘I’m obsessed with them together,’ she added of Grant and Chalamet’s paired interviews.
‘I like how movies are marketed nowadays,’ mused Dr Sean Travers on the social media platform.
‘Nolan promoted Oppenheimer by threatening to kill us, Hugh Grant promotes Wonka by telling everyone he hated it, and Ridley Scott just yells at everyone.’
The Florence Foster Jenkins star, who recently made , which offers free plumbing work across the country, has been busy downplaying his experience of becoming an Oompa Loompa in the film, which also stars Olivia Colman, Matt Lucas, Rowan Atkinson and Keegan-Michael Key.
He claimed in one interview that he ‘couldn’t have hated it more’.
‘It was like a crown of thorns, very uncomfortable,’ he said during a press conference attended by Metro.co.uk on having multiple cameras on his face and other apparatuses to help the animators create the final product.
‘I made a big fuss about it,’ he admitted, adding: ‘I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more.’
When asked about his reaction to it on the , he did admit to the host – as we all knew – that it’s his ‘shtick’.
‘It’s been my shtick for, God knows, . Do I mean it? I don’t think I mean it.’
‘If there’s too much gush around, it comes up like a kind of automatic furball, something negative, you know? And there’s a lot of gush on these press junkets and things. I can’t do it,’ he added.
Never change, Hugh.
Wonka is in cinemas now.
