Pouring on the Charm

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EMMA: Let's kill him and see.

TIME: Let's talk politics for a minute. Did you hesitate to include Hugh's vaguely anti-American speech in a movie that will play in American multiplexes?

RICHARD: It was meant to be a comic moment, that a Prime Minister would change policy because he thought he saw the President of the U.S. kissing the girl he fancies. It certainly wasn't intended as a large comment on American foreign policy.

EMMA: Shall we discuss Ah-nuld?

TIME: You starred with the Governor-elect of California in Junior.

EMMA: And was I invited to the f______ inauguration?

LIAM: Did he touch you up, Emma? I bet he tried to, right?

EMMA: No, he didn't! I promise you. He was incredibly courteous and European, actually.

RICHARD: Did you ever catch him humming Nazi marching songs while he wasn't thinking?

EMMA: Please stop.

TIME: Moving on — nearly every character in this movie has a moment of either comic or tragic embarrassment ...

LIAM: Used to. There was this computer scene ... [Laughter.]

RICHARD: It's funny you say that. I'm now going to have to think through the film and discover what those moments are.

TIME: Well, there's Hugh's dance sequence ...

HUGH: That's not meant to be embarrassing! That's meant to be celebratory! You've said something rather hurtful.

RICHARD: I think you're talking about what I plaintively hope is drama.

EMMA: But we're particularly good at being embarrassed, British people. Aren't we terminally embarrassed about almost everything? I think it's true. We use it as a dramatic device quite a lot.

LIAM: It's also interesting to act. It's quite a hurdle, that one.

EMMA: It's much more difficult than anger or pain or any of the biggies.

HUGH: I beg to differ. It's the only one I can do.

TIME: Is love difficult to play?

RICHARD: You know, I don't think anyone actually says I love you in the film.

EMMA: I always get irritable when there are I-love-yous, especially when children announce to their parents that they love them endlessly.

LIAM: I tell my kids I love them simply because I used to find it really embarrassing to say it. I will call them back if I forget to say it, and I love to hear them say it back. It's really crucial to me now to hear those words, cliched as they are.

RICHARD: I don't know about you guys, but I love Josh. I love him.

TIME: Dude.

HUGH: I've actually taken quite a dislike to him myself.

TIME: Maybe if you got to know me or weren't so hung over.

RICHARD: Should we talk about the love thing, in terms of ... [Grant pretends to snore.] I'm only just thinking of the argument of the film. When you're in your 20s and 30s, love is about being romantic and finding the right person. When you become a family man, you realize that it's not very democratic, the way we portray love. The idea was to say that all of these loves are equally interesting.

TIME: Romantic comedies generally hinge on a simple device — will they or won't they? So how do you make them different?

HUGH: Ah, you mean since we know what's going to happen, how do you make them good.

RICHARD: I didn't know when I was writing Four Weddings and a Funeral that I was writing a romantic comedy. In some ways, the answer is to fight the genre. My favorite romantic film is An Officer and a Gentleman.

EMMA: Not Some Like It Hot? I find that so romantic.

RICHARD: Tony Curtis is in love with Jack Lemmon. What's romantic?

HUGH: It finishes in the speedboat.

EMMA: Yes, with "Nobody's perfect," the best line in any film ever. Tony Curtis is probably the sexiest actor who ever lived, present company excepted.

LIAM: You know Tony Curtis is on the road playing that part.

EMMA: Last time I saw him, he was standing in front of a woman whose breasts were actually here, around his ears.

RICHARD: Terribly good way to keep your ears warm.

TIME: Were there any people you approached for the movie who turned you down?

RICHARD: We offered the part of the President [played by Billy Bob Thornton] to John Travolta. I bumped into Travolta at a party, and he said, "I will be in any film, any part — just you ring, and I'll be there." So we got in touch, and I think his agent rang back, rather cross, and said, "You must be joking. John wouldn't even consider it."

TIME: What are the differences you have encountered between British and American actors?

COLIN: I do find a lot of American actors, quite creatively, use the text just as a starting point. We're much more fixed to the discipline of what's on the page.

HUGH: Woody Allen's much more free and easy with his text than you, Richard.

LIAM: But if there was a joke, he'd say, "Keep the joke. That joke works." I didn't have any jokes, of course.

HUGH: I admire Barry Levinson and films like Diner, where everyone's interrupting all the time. The BBC school of filmmaking is "No, love, you can't interrupt. You've got to wait until they finish speaking."