'The Undoing' star Hugh Grant says playing charming characters are 'behind me'

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Hugh Grant says the chance to finally work with Nicole Kidman was a major selling point that solidified his choice to star in the upcoming HBO thriller "The Undoing."

The limited series from Emmy winner David E. Kelley features Grant as a prominent New York City doctor, Jonathan, who is hiding some dark secrets. Kidman plays his wife, Grace, who is left to pick up the pieces of their broken life. 

While speaking with Entertainment Weekly, the 60-year-old actor said the chemistry with Kidman was immediate. 

"It did feel sort of right. When we were in the room together, I just felt like, we could be married, this is convincing. And it’s very important that in episode one that you think that this isn’t a dead marriage even though they’ve been married for [something like] 15 years… There’s still a bit of spark there, they quite like each other, they like each other’s jokes. They still have sex. That’s all quite hard to do in one episode without getting nauseating. There was a lot of debate about that, but I remember thinking, 'This kind of works with Nicole,'" he explained.  

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Grant also said he was looking forward to playing a character who was flawed and complicated. 

English actor Hugh Grant said he's done playing charming characters.  (TOBIAS SCHWARZ/AFP via Getty Images)

"I’m very drawn to characters where two or three or five or six people live in one human being," he explained. "I’ve always thought that was much truer than trying to find the one essence of this person, because we change according to circumstance and environment, who we’re talking too, mood."

Earlier in Grant's career, he was known for playing the likable lead in romantic comedies and dramas, but he said he felt pigeonholed.

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"I feel like that part of my career, where I’m the charming leading man, I’m quite happy to have that behind me, and I’ve been doing these much more character-y roles recently, and enjoying them, and they seem to work quite well," Grant described. "And I didn’t want to go back to sort of just doing a version of Hugh Grant."

Hugh Grant and Nicole Kidman play a well-off married couple embroiled in a public scandal.  (HBO)

All in all, Grant said filming the limited series was a great experience. "I’m very glad I did," he said. "I’m very proud of it, I’ve seen it now."

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"The Undoing" premieres Sunday, Oct. 25 on HBO.