Hugh Grant calls Drew Barrymore a ‘horrendous’ singer, slams ‘Notting Hill’

It’s one of the most popular rom-coms of all time, but lead star Hugh Grant couldn’t stomach one of its most iconic scenes.

Hugh Grant in 1999 film Notting Hill.

After being seemingly rude to Ashley Graham at the Oscars, the British actor, 62, is now adamant about offending pretty much everyone else in Hollywood — from Notting Hill fans to former co-star Drew Barrymore and even an extra on set.

He recently appeared in a Wired interview alongside his Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves castmates Chris Pine and Michelle Rodriguez, reports the New York Post.

The Love Actually alum revealed during the clip how he made fun of Barrymore’s singing during their 2007 rom-com Music & Lyrics.

“I’m auto-tuned a bit, but not as much as some,” Grant divulged of his singing in the flick.

“Drew Barrymore was in that film with me and I don’t think she’d mind me saying her singing is just horrendous. I’ve heard dogs bark better than she sings,” he confessed.

However, after “they tuned her up,” Grant said the Scream star “sounded way better than me because she’s got heart and voice and rock ‘n’ roll.”

Elsewhere in his interview, the Four Weddings and a Funeral actor recalled a detail in the finale of his 1999 movie Notting Hill that he described as “nauseating.”

Notting Hill follows Julia Roberts as Anna Scott, an actress who falls in love with Grant’s William Thacker — a bookshop owner — while shooting her latest project.

The last scene features the loved-up couple at a park, where William reads the book, Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, which had significant meaning to Notting Hill director Roger Michell.

Grant found this scene ‘nauseating’.

“In that nauseating moment on the bench at the end, I’m reading Captain Corelli’s Mandolin by Louis de Bernières, which was going to be his next film,” Grant explained. “So it’s a little in-joke from Roger Michell, God rest his soul.”

Michell died in 2021 at the age of 65. He was initially set to direct a film version of Captain Corelli’s Mandolin, but he pulled out after suffering a heart attack in 1999.

The movie went ahead with John Madden at the helm and was released in 2001 with Nicholas Cage and Penelope Cruz starring.

Grant’s interview continued with him admitting to more questionable behaviour. Earlier this month, Grant admitted that he went berserk at a “nice local woman” while filming Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves.

Grant pulled no punches discussing his previous films. Picture: Boris Streubel/Getty Images

He told Total Film magazine that he lost his cool on set and “did a Christian Bale”. Bale infamously went on an expletive-filled rant on a crew member during shooting Terminator Salvation in 2009.

“I lost my temper with a woman in my eyeline on day one,” Grant said of his moment on set. “I assumed she was some executive from the studio who should have known better. Then it turns out that she’s an extremely nice local woman who was the chaperone of the young girl. Terrible. A lot of grovelling …”

The father of five went viral on March 12 when he was chatting with Graham and he was seemingly rolling his eyes at the model’s questions. Their talk caused controversy and many social media users labeled him as an “a**ehole.”

This article originally appeared in the New York Post and was republished with permission

Originally published as Hugh Grant calls Drew Barrymore a ‘horrendous’ singer, slams ‘Notting Hill’