Virgin Media – 12th December, 2011

Richard E. Grant was forced to dye his hair blonde for his part in ‘The Iron Lady’.

The esteemed actor plays the role of government minister Michael Heseltine in the forthcoming biopic about Margaret Thatcher – which stars Meryl Streep as the iconic British leader – but was upset when he was one of the only actors who didn’t get to wear a wig.

He said: “Everyone else had wigs, but for some reason they wouldn’t give me one. I said, ‘Look, he’s got more hair at 80 than I had when I was 20.’ But they said, ‘No, you’ve got to dye it.’ ”

Richard admits unlike Heseltine – who was long rumoured to have held feelings for Thatcher – he did not find the Conservative leader sexy because he reminded him of his old schoolteachers.

He said: “To be attractive you have to have some sense of humour, a sense of irony or self-deprecation.”

“I was tortured at school by female biology teachers and she reminds me of them.”

“I know some people say she’s sexy, but I’ve never got sex appeal off her.”

The full interview with Richard E. Grant appears in the January issue of Reader’s Digest, in shops from December 19th.