Hugh Grant isn't shying away from expressing disdain for his role in the Timothée Chalamet-starring Wonka.
During a recent press conference promoting the film, which hits theaters Dec. 15, Grant didn't hide his true feelings about what it took to film his takes as one of the famous Oompa-Loompas.
"It was like a crown of thorns, very uncomfortable," Grant said of the camera rig he wore to facilitate a mixture of animation and motion capture. "I made a big fuss about it. I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more. ... And frankly, what I did with my body was terrible, and it’s all been replaced with an animator."
Grant added that it's "very confusing, with CGI now, you can’t tell what’s going on." Asked if the end product was worth the fuss of filming, he answered, “Not really.”
The Love, Actually star confided that he agreed to be an Oompa-Loompa largely due to financial causes. “I slightly hate [making films] but I have lots of children and need money," he said.
On the flip side, Chalamet has nothing but high hopes for Wonka, which he says is a companion piece to Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory. Last week, the Oscar-nominated actor spoke with Complex about how his version of the character compares to Gene Wilder's portrayal in the 1971 classic.
"This is really the companion piece to the 1971 Gene Wilder film," Chalamet explained. "The color palette. The song 'Pure Imagination' is one of our centerpieces of our film, the way it is of the Gene Wilder film. So, this really feels like the story of a young, ambitious, almost naive Willy Wonka, before the Gene Wilder version that we all grew up on."
