NOW Magazine – July 31, 1997

By Paula Kerr

One minute Richard E Grant was quietly enjoying the party, sipping mineral water and chatting to friends then, before he could say Girl Power, he was surrounded on all sides and pinned against the wall by the Spice Girls. ‘Please be in our film,’ begged Geri. ‘We want you to be our manager!’

The part was written for the star of “Jack & Sarah” and “Withnail & I”, and he started work alongside Frank Bruno, Michael Barrymore and Stephen Fry on the film that he hopes will make him as popular as the girl band.”To be a household name I think you have to be in a TV soap opera five nights a week and I haven’t achieved that status,” he says modestly. “Perhaps that will happen after the Spice Girls film.”

He recalls that first close encounter, “I was at the Comic Relief launch at the Planetarium in London. They came out of nowhere and were exactly like I expected them to be – absolutely upfront and incredibly vibrant with an out-to-have-a-good-time attitude, which was very attractive. How could I refuse?”

A couple of months later he received a script. “The manager’s part was written for me, which was very flattering. It’s being shot near my home in London and, as my daughter is a huge Spice Girls fan, I didn’t have a choice.”

But he’s not expecting the film to win him any awards. “I think the intention is to make it a pop film in the best sense of the word. It’s not meant to be profound, moving or memorable in 75 years’ time.

“The girls play themselves. If they started saying they were going to be the new, young Meryl Streeps then I think we’d all gasp, but that’s not on their agenda….as far as I know.”

Asked if he has a favourite, he diplomatically replies that he likes all five girls equally.

“If I said that one of them was my favourite, no doubt I’d be kick-boxed between scenes,” says the 40 year old actor, who was nicknamed Posher Spice by the girls.

“I suppose it’s better than being called Older Spice. Richard Briers is in the film – perhaps he’s Grandpa Spice!”

He’s briefly met the man responsible for guiding the girls to the top of the charts on both sides of the Atlantic, their real manager Simon fuller – but of the music business he says: “It’s an arena I have no knowledge of other than as a punter.”

His new starring role has certainly scored a big hit with his eight year old daughter Olivia. He also has a stepson, Tom, from his wife Joan Washington’s first marriage.

“It’s a job Olivia wanted me to do more than anything else so I’m doing it for her, but also for me. I like the Spice Girls – it would be hard in my house not to like them. Olivia’s obsessed with them and really excited at the prospect of meeting them all. She wants to be a Spice Girls.”

Richard hopes that when they do all meet, he doesn’t show Olivia up. “You hope your not going to be an embarrassment to your child,” he says. “But there’s always going to be a point when what you wear, what car you drive, how you speak or walk is going to cause your offspring to have some kind of strong reaction. I just wait for it to come. I suppose I’ll be quite popular for a while. I just hope it lasts until Christmas when the movie comes out.”

Certainly Richard fully endorses Girl Power. “If it means teenage girls have their self-esteem pumped up by imitating the Spice Girls in some way, I don’t think that’s a bad thing at all. If they’re asserting themselves, that’s great.”

He’s also looking forward to partying with the girls between filming. “I might not drink or smoke – I’ve never understood why people stick this burning, smelly thing into their faces – but it’s a personal choice. I don’t want to become an old crumbly passing judgment, but I like party life and dance like a dervish all night long.”

He started the Spice Girls film just two days after completing that £6 million costume drama St Ives, with Anna Friel, but says he didn’t recognise the sexy, 20 year old actress. “I’ve never seen Brookside so I hadn’t heard of Anna Friel. We only had two scenes together, so I still don’t know her. She’s an unknown quantity to me.”

Following the success of his diaries, “With Nails”, Richard’s penning his first novel during breaks in filming. “I have a year to write it. There’s a lot of waiting around between takes, so it’s the perfect opportunity. But for now, all I think about is the Spice Girl film. I always begin a movie with the best intentions, like falling in love with someone. I go in hoping to have good fun and a good laugh.”