Hugh Grant will play an Oompa Loompa in the next Willy Wonka picture, Wonka.
The Love Actually star, 62, was announced at CinemaCon 2023 to be becoming a bit, well, orange for the prequel, which will be published in December.
Timothée Chalamet co-stars with Hugh as Willy Wonka, Roald Dahl’s fictitious character from his 1964 children’s classic Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
Hugh’s co-star from Love Actually, Rowan Atkinson, is also in the cast, along with Olivia Coleman, Keegan-Michael Key, Matt Lucas, and Sally Hawkins.
The new film, a prequel to the legendary 1971 film Willy Wonka & the Chocolate Factory, explores the narrative of how the quirky inventor became the biggest brand in the sweet industry.
The orange Oompa Loompas in the original film are performed by a variety of performers, however Deep Roy was cast in Hugh’s new role in the 2005 remake, Charlie and the Chocolate Factory.
This follows the Notting Hill actor’s viral red carpet interview last month, during which a few wires were tripped.
Hugh’s most recent appearances were Operation Fortune: Ruse de guerre, Dungeons & Dragons: Honour Among Thieves, and Glass Onion, a standalone sequel to the 2019 film Knives Out, released last year.
The actor rose to prominence after appearing in the renowned romantic comedy Four Weddings and a Funeral, and he then played bad boy Daniel Cleaver in Bridget Jones’ Diary and Bridget Jones: The Edge of Reason.
Hugh went open about one film he wishes he could delete from his career during a recent appearance on the Late Late Show with James Corden.
After some coaxing from comedian and fellow guest Chris Pine, the actor ultimately picked The Lady and the Highwayman, in which he appeared as Lord Lucius Vyne, as a film he could live without ever having featured in.
‘I’m a highwayman. I’m meant to be sexy,’ he described. ‘Low-budget, bad wig, bad hat. I look like Deputy Dawg.
‘When I’m tense, my voice goes up two octaves. Deputy Dawg would come leaping out of trees when a carriage would come past and go, “Stand and deliver!”
‘It’s poor.’
The Bafta-winner added: ‘I apologize to all of my wonderful colleagues on it.’