Richard E. Grant still "can't believe" he's been cast in a 'Star Wars' movie.
Richard E Grant
The 61-year-old actor has been a fan of the franchise since the first movie was released in 1977 and he admitted he thought it was "in the realm of impossibility" that he'd ever be a part of the space saga until he was offered a secret role in the upcoming 'Star Wars: Episode IX'.
He told 'Entertainment Tonight': "The first one blew my head off. So that four decades later I would be actually in one seems as unlikely as it was to say that I wanted to be an actor in 1969, when I was 12 years old when they landed on the moon... I can't really believe that it's happening."
But before fans can see him in the final installment of the series, Richard is starring alongside Melissa McCarthy in 'Can You Ever Forgive Me?' and he instantly hit it off with his co-star.
He quipped: "As you can imagine, she and I hated each other on sight."
He then added: "I absolutely loved and adored her instantaneously and we really got on."
And the pair grew so close, they had lunch together every day during the four-week shoot.
Richard said: "That was a testament to how well we connected. That inevitably, in retrospect, informed how we riffed off each other, playing these parts."
The movie, which is directed by Marielle Heller, sees Melissa portray author Lee Israel, who began forging letters by famous actors and writers when her career stalled, while Richard plays her close friend, Jack Hock.
And the British actor is surprised the well-reviewed movie has attracted so much positive attention.
He said: "On paper, you've got an incredibly unlikable, socially inept, porcupine of a woman who is a homely, Jewish lesbian and she forms a friendship with an HIV-positive kleptomaniac. You go, 'Does that really sound like the movie that you want to go and invest your time and your care and your compassion in?' "
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