Hugh Grant Says He Was 'Very Uncomfortable' Playing an Oompa-Loompa in Wonka

"It was like a crown of thorns," Grant said of the multiple cameras pointed at his face while filming the movie. "Very uncomfortable… I couldn't have hated the whole thing more."

Hugh Grant wasn’t a huge fan of playing an Oompa-Loompa in the upcoming, Wonka.

At a recent press conference, Grant told reporters he was less than happy with the filming process, sharing that he had multiple cameras directed at his face so that the movie’s animators could play down his nearly 6-foot frame.

“It was like a crown of thorns,” Grant said according to Metro, “very uncomfortable.”

“I made a big fuss about it,” he added. “I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more.”

According to the outlet, the Love Actually actor said he had issues throughout the course of the movie, with Grant revealing that he was never sure if he was supposed to act with his whole body or just his face.

“I never received a satisfactory answer,” Grant said. “And frankly, what I did with my body was terrible, and it’s all been replaced with an animator.”

Watch First Trailer for Timothee Chalamet's Wonka Featuring Hugh Grant as Oompa Loompa

Grant seemingly wasn’t too thrilled about the finished project either, shrugging when asked if seeing the completed film made it all worth while.

“Not really,” he quipped, adding that the dancing scenes “should be fun,” before noting that an animator came to his aide there as well.

“It should be fun, but that was done by the animator,” he said.

“It’s very confusing, with CGI now, you can’t tell what’s going on,” Grant added before recalling a scene from Paddington 2, when he says his father turned to him and asked, “Is that a real bear?”

Later on in the press conference, Grant shared his sentiment about filmmaking in general, joking that he doesn’t like the process much even in the best of times.

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“I slightly hate [making films] but I have lots of children and need money,” the father of five quipped before adding that it still was “quite fun, messing around and trying new lines.”

Grant was sure, however, to make clear that it was nothing against the film or director Paul King.

King, meanwhile, was all her for Grant’s curmudgeonly qualities, revealing they’re exactly why he was cast in the Oompa Loompa role alongside Timothee Chalamet‘s Willy Wonka.

“The Oompa Loompas don’t have any dialogue in the book, really, and the films, they’ve sort of got very little. But in the book they do have these very, very long songs — or they’re presented as songs, they’re poems,” King told the Radio Times.

He continued, “But they’re so funny, and I was reading them sort of trying to get a voice in my head, and they’re so sort of biting and sarcastic and scornful and incredibly funny, and Hugh’s voice just kept coming towards me.”

Wonka hits theaters December 15.


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