Jay Leno Looks Back on Famous Hugh Grant 1995 Interview
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Jay Leno is looking back at his famous interview with Hugh Grant on The Tonight Show.
During a conversation with Chris Wallace on Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace?, available on Max and airing on CNN, the former late night host reflected on securing an interview with Grant in 1995, which was most notably after the actor was arrested for picking up a sex worker. Prior to the arrest, Grant had been scheduled to appear on The Tonight Show to promote his film, Nine Months.
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During the interview, Leno was quick to ask Grant “What the hell were you thinking?” as the audience erupted into laughter.
“You know in life what’s a good thing to do and a bad thing to do. I did a bad thing,” Grant told the late night host at the time. The rest of the interview remained lighthearted with Grant explaining how the arrest impacted his personal life and the media frenzy surrounding it.
“As someone who asked questions for a living, how did you come up with that? Because it was perfect,” Wallace asked Leno.
“Just off the top of my head,” Leno said.
He continued to explain how prior to Grant’s appearance he had a conversation with the actor to inquire whether he was still set to make an appearance despite the media storm surrounding his arrest.
“You know, he was great. Nowadays, you’d have 100 handlers. I called him up, and I said, ‘You still in for tomorrow?’ He goes, ‘Yeah.’ He said, ‘You know, I effed up. And, you know, it’s my fault.'”
When Leno informed him that he had to ask about it, he recalled Grant saying “I get it.” “He showed up, didn’t have a publicist like nowadays, somebody explaining it who was on Xanax. So none of that nonsense, you know, and he was honest about it,” Leno said.
During an appearance on The View in March, Grant poked fun at the arrest after he was asked about being a longtime critic of the British press.
“Everyone thinks, ‘Oh, well he’s just bitter because he got arrested with a hooker in 1995,'” he said. “But actually it had nothing to do with that because that was never uncovered by tabloids. It was that the bloody police gave everyone the information. It was nothing to do with that.”
New episodes of Who’s Talking to Chris Wallace? are available Friday mornings on Max and air Fridays at 10 p.m. ET/PT on CNN.
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