Hugh Grants jokes that he's 'too old and fat and ugly' to make rom-coms anymore

The English actor rose to fame in romantic comedies but says he prefers the roles he's offered now that he's aged.

If you're just a girl standing in front of a boy waiting for Hugh Grant to make another romantic comedy, you'll probably be standing there for a while.

On Monday's episode of The Drew Barrymore Show, the star of such rom-coms as Notting Hill and Love Actually was asked about his ongoing "Hugh-aissance" and his pivot away from the genre that helped make him a household name.

"I got too old and fat and ugly to do romantic comedies, obviously," Grant, 63, quipped. "So I got offered more interesting things."

In Grant's eyes, aging has only brought him more fulfilling work, which he feels in turn has improved his acting. " I got a bit better," he said. "I got a little less bad after I had children, got married, got happier."

Grant and host Drew Barrymore go back a ways, having costarred in the 2007 rom-com Music and Lyrics. Grant was synonymous with the genre in the 1990s and 2000s, employing his signature charming befuddlement (and later, a caddish streak) in a host of classics like Four Weddings and a Funeral and the Bridget Jones films.

In recent years, Grant has focused more on character roles, including the villainous Phoenix Buchanan in Paddington 2, to much acclaim.

But Barrymore herself is still holding out hope that Grant might return to the types of movies that made him a star. "We need to do another one," she said, pitching Grant on a rom-com reunion.

Grant's latest movie is the musical prequel Wonka, which hits theaters Dec. 15 and features Timothée Chalamet in the title role.

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