With Charlie and the Chocolate Factory prequel Wonka hitting theaters on December 15th, it won’t be long before audiences get a golden ticket to the highly-anticipated blockbuster starring Timothée Chalamet. The making of the confectionary flick wasn’t all sweet, though — at least not for Hugh Grant, who shared his discontentment this week about the shooting process for the film.
More specifically, Grant apparently took issue with the process of working with CGI motion capture to portray his role as Lofty, an Oompa Loompa. During a recent press conference (via Metro UK), Grant compared the cameras he had to wear to “a crown of thorns,” saying that he made a major fuss about the process. “I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more,” he lamented.
Grant explained that he did not know whether to act with just his face or with his entire body, adding, “I never received a satisfactory answer. And frankly, what I did with my body was terrible, and it’s all been replaced with an animator.”
Luckily, Grant’s candid reluctance seems to be the exact reason he was cast for the role by director Paul King. As Deadline reports, King told Radio Times that Hugh’s voice kept coming to mind whenever he sat with the voice of the creatures in Roald Dahl’s original tale. “They’re so sort of biting and sarcastic and scornful and incredibly funny,” he said — making Grant a natural fit for the role.
Luckily, Grant’s remarks all seem to be in good fun. As Deadline reports, Grant later joked in the press conference that the role was a net positive for him. “I slightly hate [making films] but I have lots of children and need money,” he quipped — a wisecrack reminiscent of Taika Waititi’s recent remarks regarding his involvement in the Marvel franchise, Thor.