Richard E Grant has a huge CV of roles he's accumulated over the years: science fiction and superhero works like Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker, Doctor Who, Loki and Logan, dramatic pieces like Can You Ever Forgive Me? and The Age of Innocence, and cult classics like Withnail & I and Spice World: The Movie.
Now he's taking on a different kind of role for Everybody's Talking About Jamie, the film adaptation of the hit musical based on the real-life story of a teenager who becomes a drag queen at 16.
The actor is playing Hugo/Loco Chanelle, Jamie's drag mentor, in the film. As preparation for the role, Grant did what we've all done over the last year (if not earlier) and binge-watched RuPaul's Drag Race.
Related: Everybody's Talking About Jamie dazzles in first reviews ahead of Amazon release
Speaking exclusively to Digital Spy, the star said he had never sung or danced in a movie before, and had never done drag, which meant he was feeling a fair bit of "terror" going into the role.
"[Director] Jonathan Butterell put me in contact with a brilliant drag queen called David Hoyle, who is a master, who I met many times in London," he said. "I went to see his show in Brighton. I'd never seen a drag show in my life. And his vulnerability and melancholia, and having been a success when he was younger, absolutely informed how I could be as Hugo.
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"And then I went to virtual drag school – I binge-watched 11 series of RuPaul's Drag Race in three weeks.
"When I saw how sassy, and how much shade these drag queens threw at each other, and how flamboyant they were, and unapologetic – I thought, 'Anything I do where I'm thinking, you've got to downplay this, or you can't play the obvious things'... that just goes out the window.
"Because drag queens, for real, are larger than life, and are campy, and fabulous, and extraordinary, and very verbally vicious. I thought, 'Well, you've got to go for it. You can't do this in half measures.' So I gained courage from that."
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When he first saw himself fully dragged up, Grant stated that he was "amazed". He said: "I was almost 6 foot 8 inches tall with the wig and the heels. And as Jonathan predicted, he said, 'A sort of drag persona comes out of you, because you've got this warpainted warrior outfit on.'
"And it’s true. It did happen. It took a long time to happen but once I got used to the idea, I thought, 'Alright. You can go and do this.'
"But what nobody warned me about is that once you’re tucked and spanked and tight-ed up to the eyeballs, and then the killer heels, you can't go to the loo.
"You take tiny sips of water through a straw not to mess up your lipliner. I had bladder control for about 14 hours during the days when I had to actually be in drag. That's the bit that RuPaul never, ever discusses."
Everybody's Talking About Jamie is released on Amazon Prime Video on September 17. For more about the movie, check out the latest issue of Digital Spy Magazine on Apple News+.
Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.
Movies Editor, Digital Spy Ian has more than 10 years of movies journalism experience as a writer and editor. Starting out as an intern at trade bible Screen International, he was promoted to report and analyse UK box-office results, as well as carving his own niche with horror movies, attending genre festivals around the world. After moving to Digital Spy, initially as a TV writer, he was nominated for New Digital Talent of the Year at the PPA Digital Awards. He became Movies Editor in 2019, in which role he has interviewed 100s of stars, including Chris Hemsworth, Florence Pugh, Keanu Reeves, Idris Elba and Olivia Colman, become a human encyclopedia for Marvel and appeared as an expert guest on BBC News and on-stage at MCM Comic-Con. Where he can, he continues to push his horror agenda – whether his editor likes it or not.
