(Credits: Far Out / Alamy)
Mon 1 September 2025 15:15, UK
Richard E Grant should be way more of a star than he actually is.
One of the few actors in the world who adds a certain brilliance to any production he is included in, Grant’s position as a British national treasure should be extended globally. He can be fierce, vulnerable and hilarious within a few separate lines, but he’s still never quite cracked his way to the top of the Hollywood pile.
Even though he’s never made it to that particular rarified air, Grant’s CV still contains some absolute bangers. In recent times, he scored an Oscar nomination for Can You Ever Forgive Me? and played an understated, yet key role in Emerald Fennell’s viral sensation Saltburn. In his storied past, he’s worked alongside some of the finest filmmakers of all time, including Martin Scorsese and, on more than one occasion, Robert Altman. Then there’s Withnail & I, the existential comedy masterpiece that was his first foray into screen acting.
All of this experience primes Grant perfectly to comment on the work of others. When asked to provide some of his favourite films by The Academy, he opted for both The Godfather and its sequel. However, when it comes to his absolute favourite, it’s the second instalment that ended up taking the number one spot.
“The Godfather Part II feels like the story of 20th-century America to me,” he said. Grant may be like any other viewer in picking the classic movie, but his appreciation for the film seems to rely on one central image: “When it shows Don Corleone arriving at Ellis Island and he sees the Statue of Liberty after travelling from Sicily, it’s like every immigrant’s dream.”
For a British man, with roots across the world, it’s perhaps expected that Grant connected with the idealistic vision of the American dream slowly being tarnished by a reality nobody ever wants to accept. “You think you’re going to go to America and you’re going to find your fortune,” he continues, “and then you see how that gets corrupted by the end of the story.”
He explained that both films were immaculate in every possible way, especially in terms of casting. “Al Pacino’s performance is absolutely astonishing in the film,” he elaborated. “The whole cast really is remarkable.” He touched on the controversy surrounding a lack of women across the trilogy, noting how Connie (Talia Shire) and Kay (Diane Keaton) are basically the only female characters. However, he still wanted to acknowledge that both women’s performances were “absolutely extraordinary”.
Decades after the release of his favourite film, Grant got the chance of a lifetime; to work with the man who directed. He was cast in Francis Ford Coppola’s Bram Stoker’s Dracula, which is one of the longest-winded movie titles ever made. Grant plays Dr Jack Seward, the man in charge of a mental asylum housing the now-insane R M Renfield. Singer Tom Waits played that particular role and Grant has some great stories about their time on-set together.
There isn’t much credibility to be gained in picking the first two editions of the Godfather story as favourite movies. But Grant connected with something far beyond bravado, his was an affection for genuine story, which originally brought him into the theatre in the first place.
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