Some people simply have a wicked sense of humour. According to Drew Barrymore, Hugh Grant is one of those people. Drew defended Hugh on her talk show, The Drew Barrymore Show, after the actor called her singing “horrendous” in their 2007 film, Music and Lyrics. “He is a hilarious, good human being,” she said.
In a Wired video interview posted to YouTube last week, Hugh did not mince his words when describing Barrymore’s vocal talent in Music and Lyrics. The film stars Grant as Alex Fletcher, an ageing former boy band member who teams up with Sophie Fisher, Barrymore’s aspiring lyricist, in hopes of reinvigorating his waning career. “Drew Barrymore was in that film with me, and I don’t think she’d mind me saying her singing is just horrendous,” said Grant, laughing. “I’ve heard dogs bark better than she sings.” Grant also disparaged his own singing in the clip, saying that though he wasn’t auto-tuned “as much” as Barrymore, she still ended up sounding “way better” than he did.
She took the high road.
While some might call that comment flat-out rude, Drew took the jab in stride in conversation with TV personality Ross Mathews on her talk show. “If you know Hugh, like, that is his way of loving you,” she said on Friday. She also discussed the awkward exchange between Hugh and Ashley Graham at the Oscars. “There’s, like, this thing going around with, like, him and Ashley Graham on the red carpet, and people are like, ‘Oh, he’s such a curmudgeon and she’s so thrown,’” said Barrymore. “I’m like, no, that is Hugh Grant. You think you’re getting this charming movie star, and what you really get is grumpy Hugh. And then you fall in love with grumpy Hugh.”
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Drew doubled down on defending Hugh’s sardonic sense of humour. “When he says that, I’m telling you, he is being absolutely funny. He doesn’t mean one negative thing about it,” she said. “The person that Ashley Graham met on that carpet is the real Hugh.” Mathews pointed out that Drew’s “happy puppy”-like personality seems at odds with Hugh’s grumpy demeanour, and asked her how the two were able to gel. “Well, it took me a second,” she admitted. “I was like, oh, no. I love you. I want to love you. You’re not letting me love you. And then as I got to know him, I was like, I do love you. I love you for the real you.”
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Despite Drew’s vocals and mixed reviews, Music and Lyrics was a box office hit, raking in nearly $146 million worldwide. Grant and Barrymore have remained friendly as well; in 2021, Hugh came on The Drew Barrymore Show and spoke fondly of the film. “I love to hate the films I’ve been in, and I do hate some of them,” he said on the talk show. “But Music and Lyrics, it’s impossible to hate. We’re so good in it and so charming.”
Drew also posted a video of herself singing the central song from the film, A Way Back Into Love, on her Instagram alongside the hashtag #SingForHughGrant. While she may have proved Hugh’s point with the video, Barrymore got the last laugh: “Oh, Hugh-bert, Hughbert, that’s for you.”
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This article originally appeared on Vanity Fair.
