It Turns Out Hugh Grant Had A Near-Death Experience While Making 1 Of His Most Iconic Films

  (The Huffington Post) : Hugh Grant at the Baftas in February Hugh Grant was almost involved in a near-fatal incident while filming Four Weddings And A Funeral, the director has revealed. The British actor played the lead in Richard Curtis’ hit rom-com, which follows a group of friends navigating love and loss in the mid-1990s. In a new Guardian interview to celebrate the 30th anniversary of the film, director Mike Newell recalled one scene which could have ended in disaster. Recalling the opening scene, in which Hugh’s character and his best friend Scarlett (Charlotte Coleman) are racing to make it to the first of the titular weddings, the director said: “That scene on the motorway, for some reason, Hugh was actually driving. He shouldn’t have been but he was.” He continued: “They were within inches of backing at full speed into a truck that was coming at them. “I suddenly saw the whole film collapsing in front of me, and what I had done was engineer the death of the leading man on the motorway.” Hugh Grant and Charlotte Coleman on the set of Four Weddings And A Funeral Thankfully, no one was hurt filming the scene, and the movie went on to set Hugh up as the king of rom-coms. However, in a separate interview with The Times, writer Richard revealed that the British star wasn’t even his first choice for the role, despite the pair later going on to collaborate again on Notting Hill and Love Actually. “The director, Mike Newell, took the casting unbelievably seriously,” he said. “I argued hard against Hugh Grant. “I had in my mind a less glamorous person because I’m a very unglamorous person. So ..