In a recent interview with Business
Insider, British actor Hugh Grant said that he took a role in A
Very English Scandal for its sex scenes with co-star Ben Whishaw.
Based on a book by British journalist
John Preston and written by Russell T. Davies, who created Queer
as Folk, Cucumber and Banana, A Very English
Scandal stars Grant, 57, as Jeremy Thorpe, a politician with
aspirations of becoming prime minister who was accused of conspiring
to murder his ex-lover, Norman Scott, played by Whishaw, who is
openly gay. The BBC's three-part drama is currently streaming on
Amazon Prime Video.
(Related: Ben
Whishaw: Anti-gay “attitudes have only really shifted over the last
five years.”)
When asked whether he knew that he
would have sex scenes with Whishaw when he took the role, Grant
answered: “That's why I took the role.”
"We just got on with it, really,"
Grant
continued. "The scenes where we're in love, and I'm
passionately kissing him and rolling around in the bed with him, very
little talk. Just, 'I think I'm going to stand here, kiss him, and
then put him on the bed.' I remember one time, I pushed him on the
bed and I thought, 'Well I got one with kissing him, but I better try
something else: I'll lick his nipples!'"