The roguish charm of Hugh Grant

You think you know Hugh Grant. He’s that sweet, shy, good in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Nothing Hill, and who was lucky enough to go out with global sexy symbol Liz Hurley for 14 years. Nice chap. Not – bad actor. Floppy hair. Admittedly, Divine Brown escapade didn’t quite fit this image, but we still clung to the belief that he was essentially that bashful charmer from his romantic-comedy hits. Until now. Playing Bridget Jones’s Diary’s seductive cad Daniel Cleaver –the publishing boss who wines, dines and two-times our Bridgets-he brings a roguish edge to his familiar big-screen comic persona. Shockingly, say his pals, this is the real Hugh Grant. That’s hard to believe as he settles down for a chat in L.A.’s Four Season Hotel sporting the new, spiky haircut he went for shortly after this photo was taken for heat He is as ever, the essence of self-deprecating wit: could a man this charming, this friendly, really be that naughty?

Are you used to the new haircut?

I’m getting there. I can’t decide if it’s what I intended, which is hip, or whether it’s not what intended, which is female tennis player. It’s for this Nick Hornby film, About A Boy. I start in about three weeks and I’m quite panicked about.

Can you empathize with Bridget’s body-image obsession?

Definitely. I became quite girlie about a year and a half ago. I was taken to a health farm in Thailand and I couldn’t have hated it more. They did that humiliating thing of measuring me for fat with callipers and came back saying I was moderately obese; I became quite interested in weight after that. I borrowed [producer] Eric Fellner’s trainer. She takes me to the park and throws sticks for me. Then we go back home and she sort of wrestles me on the floor for an hour.

Did you have a big party for your 40th birthday?

I forgot to organize it until it was too late. So I ended up going out with about five or six other angry 40-years-olds and we sat in a pub rather gloomily and then went home.

Can you relate to girls like Bridget?

Definitely, yes. I know lots of Nothing Hill girls who are sort of drowned in Chadonnay and security and I’m very fond of them. It’s all part of my life.

Whats the biggest misconception about you?

That I’m this nice guy from Four Weddings and a Funeral and Nothing Hill. It’s always exasperated me and very much amused Richard Curtis and all the people who know me.

Is true love really attainable?

I think so. It’s a rare bird but I’ve seen it. Certainly falling in love. Sustained love at that level is the harder thing but I have seen it.

What’s the point of Bridget Jones’s Diary?

I think the point is probably something close to Mark Darcy’s line to Bridget: "I like you just the way you are." Or was that Lionel Richie? That if your life’s a bit crap and you smoke too much or you’re a bit overweight.

Or your love life is a catalogue of embarrassments and failures, it’s sort of all right so long as you’re yourself, having a nice time and having a laugh.

Does your family like the fact that you’re famous?

We’ll, I’m still Hughie to them.

Bridget Jones’s Diary is released by Universal Pictures and distributed through United International Pictures.