ACTOR…DIRECTOR…AUTHOR…LEGEND! >>>>> The REG Temple…
Welcome To The REG Temple
The REG Temple is the official website for actor, author and director Richard E. Grant.
Richard has appeared in over 80 films and television programs, such as Withnail And I, The Scarlet Pinmpernel, Jack & Sarah, L.A. Story, Dracula, The Hound Of The Baskervilles, Gosford Park & The Iron Lady. In 2005 he directed his first major release, Wah-Wah.
This website is unique in that it has been run and maintained by volunteers and fans since 1998. For more information on its origins, please click here.
The Withnail and I star talks Dispatches From Elsewhere.
By Rebecca May.
We don’t know about you, but we could do with a bit of whimsy right now.
Thankfully, AMC’s Dispatches From Elsewhere is bringing it to our front rooms by the bucket load.
The all-new Philadelphia-set drama follows a group of ordinary people, thrown together in a strange and surreal puzzle-solving game to follow clues and unravel a mystery they never knew lay just under the veil of their city. Think The Wizard Of Oz meets Twin Peaks, with dance numbers, a bit of magic, and a Big Mouth Billy Bass thrown in.
Jason Segel is both creator and star of the show, with Oscar-winner Sally Field, Outkast’s André Benjamin and newcomer Eve Lindley rounding out the unassuming team thrown together on a fantastical adventure together. Richard E. Grant also stars as Octavio Coleman, Esq, the enigmatic, charming but unsettling head of the mysterious ‘Jejune Institute,’ which our heroes find themselves investigating on a surreal scavenger hunt.
We spoke to Richard E. Grant about his role in the 10-part series, from his home in lockdown – which he has accidentally become perfectly prepared for.
“Not to be disingenuous about it, but that’s the nature of an actor’s life,” he tells Shortlist of his current, homebound life, “I have actor friends that have said that apart from not being able to go anywhere, it doesn’t really feel any different because, for a lot of the time it’s feast or famine: if you’re working, then you’re filming every hour of the day, and you’re so grateful when you have a day off, but the majority of the time you’re not working.”
Allow the BAFTA-winning screen legend to reveal what you need to know about the new, most escapist show on telly…
1. Jason Segel is why Richard E. Grant signed up
“Because Jason Segel is an actor, writer and director, he’s a triple whammy. He’s very articulate and persuasive. It just seemed worth taking a leap of faith, as Sally Field did as well. Not knowing how something’s going to end makes a change from shows where everything is predictable and you’re foretold how it’s all going to end. I liked that about it.”
2. Nothing is what it seems
“When he pitched it to me, Jason said, ‘Nothing is as it seems’. And I thought, well that’s intriguing as well, because that’s my experience of my life! Like John Lennon said just before he was murdered, ‘Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans.’ You have no idea – you walk around the corner, and then suddenly you’re in lockdown for the next seven months! Nobody knows what the fuck is going to happen next, so I like that quality about it. And he certainly captured that in this story that we’re telling.”
3. The cast were surprised by the ending
“We were constantly asking, ‘What the fuck is next?!’ I think that’s what was so attractive about it – if I don’t know what’s going to happen, then, it’s intriguing. Yeah, the ending did surprise me. It surprised all of us I think. Because you then think, ‘Oh god, is that what I was doing?’ The choices that I made in the first nine episodes, did they make sense, when you find out what the final thing is?’”
4. Richard didn’t know what was going on most of the time
“The majority of what I did in it was literally looking down the barrel of the camera and talking as though I’m talking to the viewer, on my own. Obviously, at lunchtime, we’d all meet up, but generally I was on my own.
As soon as I saw any of the other actors, I always had hundreds of questions for them, I was asking, ‘What’s going on? What have you been doing?’ That was a unique experience for me, because normally you’re interacting with other people all the time. I was like somebody who had Coronavirus, I couldn’t be with other people, I just had to be with the camera on my own.”
5. The show was almost as surreal to make as it is to watch
“What will surprise audiences most about the show? Hopefully, that you don’t know what will happen, it’s not obvious. I don’t think of what’s going to happen or how it’s going to turn out. That’s the draw of it.
The most common question I’ve been getting since it’s been airing in the States, is ‘Who is Octavio?’ But I have no answer. I can’t tell you because I do know who he is, but nothing is what it seems or how it’s laid out. If I told you, that’d be a spoiler and then I’d be in deep trouble and AMC would ban me and blacklist me for the rest of my breathing days.”
“There was stuff that involved body doubles – now how can I say this without giving it away? I can’t tell you what it is, because it’s a plot spoiler. Anyway, there are doubles of things, put it that way. And that was surreal to do.”
Dispatches from Elsewhere airs on Wednesdays at 9pm on AMC UK, exclusively to BT TV (channel 332)
The Withnail and I star talks Dispatches From Elsewhere, cults and working with Sally Field.
BT TV talks to the Withnail and I legend about his mesmerising and mysterious new TV series Dispatches from Elsewhere, which also stars Jason Segel, Sally Field and André 3000.
By Alex Fletcher.
Richard E. Grant in Dispatches From Elsewhere – AMC
Dispatches From Elsewhere is unlike any TV show you’ll watch this year. In fact, it’s unlike any TV show you’ll watch almost any year.
Created by and starring Jason Segel (How I Met Your Mother, The Muppets), the series is loosely inspired by real events from a decade ago when thousands of people were recruited for a series of strange treasure hunts and curious challenges in San Francisco by the mysterious ‘Jejune Institute’.
Those events were covered in 2013 documentary The Institute, which gave Segel a starting point for this drama series about four people searching for something missing in their lives.
Jason Segel and Eve Lindley in Dispatches from Elsewhere – AMC
Segel, Andre Benjamin, Sally Field and Eve Lindley plays the four leads. A diverse foursome brought together by chance – or is it design? – to play the puzzles and games that lead them down a mysterious path towards a world of magic and new possibilities.
Pulling the strings and orchestrating the games is the mysterious and enigmatic Octavio Coleman, Esq, played by the incomparable Richard E. Grant.
BT TV caught up with Grant to find out a little more about the dazzling and mysterious new series from AMC.
1. Dispatches from Elsewhere is unlike any TV show I’ve seen. How do you describe it?
Richard E Grant and Sally Field in Dispatches From Elsewhere – AMC
To describe it… if you don’t know how to. I certainly don’t know how to!
Oh, god. It’s an anthology series. And there are four main characters who are overseen by a mental guru called Octavio, who I play.
The four people at the centre of the show are on the search for the answers to life. And that’s the quest they go on. And nothing is what it seems
It was inspired by a cult that started in San Francisco a decade ago. They made a documentary about it called The Institute. The guy at the centre of it was a guy called Octavio. He controls people through various media.
2. Is it right you had no idea what the series was about when you signed up?
Jason Segel, Sally Field and Eve Lindley in Dispatches From Elsewhere – AMC
When I first met Jason Segel, he had the first four scripts that, which I read, but that was it. Sally Field said the same thing. All he could tell us was the premise. It took a leap of faith and I dived in.
Jason is incredibly articulate. A very, very smart guy. It was unlike any pitch I’ve had from a writer or director before, probably because he is an actor himself. He understands what you have to do to get there.
And he mentioned the two magical words, Sally Field.
3. Had you worked with Sally before?
Sally Field in Dispatches from Elsewhere – AMC
If Sally Field was going to be in it, I’m very honoured and privileged to be in the same company. So I jumped into it.
I had never met her before. She’s very petit, as I’m sure you can imagine. She’s about 5 foot 3 and she’s been working professionally since she was 16 years old. She’s now 73 or 74. She’s won every award going. She’s seen and done everything. She is someone you do not mess with.
She’s incredibly amenable and generous. But don’t mess with Sally! Because you’ll have your head snapped off, in the best possible way. And I like that.
4. The opening scene of the show is you doing a captivating speech down the camera lens.
Richard E. Grant in Dispatches From Elsewhere – AMC
It’s just exactly as Jason gave it to me. He said to me, look down the barrel of the camera, imagine you are talking to somebody directly and don’t waver. Try not to blink. Keep it absolutely steady. Because I’m very gregarious by nature, I found it a very odd thing to have no people to react off other than literally the mechanical lens looking at me.
Again, that is a leap of faith I had to take. Jason did say, can you hold a look without moving or speaking at all for 30-60 seconds. I don’t know if he’s used that or not, or whether he used part of it. I haven’t seen it.
But the idea was that I would be willing people to sit back, and wait, and hear what they were going to be told.
5. Did you base your character on anyone?
Jason Segel and Eve Lindley in Dispatches from Elsewhere – AMC
I watched the scientology documentary and The Institute documentary. And I watched some evangelical preachers, Tammy Faye Bakker and her husband. People who make a living by trying to mesmerise other people. And just see what they do. That self-belief and focus is certainly not something I have in my life. So it’s interesting to dive in and try pull that off.
I’m always astonished [by cults]. Like the Waco Texas massacre. Or the guy that got all the people to follow him in South America and then poisoned them all in his commune. Anybody who manages to pull that off, I find it astonishing.
People try to sell me stuff in the street and I’ve never fallen for any of that, so it amazes me that people are willing to give up their lives, their salaries or donate 10-20% of their salaries to a cult. I’m a Darwinian rationalist, so I don’t believe in any of that stuff.
6. Eve Lindley’s character Simone immediately hooked me into the series. What was Eve like?
Jason Segel and Eve Lindley in Dispatches from Elsewhere – AMC
I’d never seen or heard of Eve before this. She’s an incredibly driven and delightful person. Out of everybody, she was probably half the age of everyone else. She was our mascot.
She was so enthusiastic about everything. She was so un-jaded, uncynical. And it was very refreshing. And she’s a really, really good actress.
7. The show doesn’t have a traditional structure. Did that appeal to you?
Andre Benjamin in Dispatches From Elsewhere – AMC
Yes. Definitely. Before I see a movie or a play, I try to read as little as I can about it. But it’s getting harder and harder with social media. You can sometimes end up finding out every bit of information about something before you’ve even seen it. And suddenly you’re watching it through the filter you’ve already downloaded.
Not knowing how something is going to turn out and not having the answers in every episode is very refreshing. It’s a great pull for this show. It’s one of it’s great strengths.
Dispatches from Elsewhere premieres on Wednesday, April 29th at 9pm on AMC.
Christ, our second The Ten in as many weeks! Who’d have thought they’d ever let me write a second one after Daisy Ridley told me she was the reincarnation of Elizabeth I and we published it?!
That said, I imagine George Lucas never thought he’d make a second Star Wars, but here we are still talking about the ninth film in the saga, so it just goes to show you how far you can get with a bit of ambition and a love of robots made from pedal bins and tinfoil.
Anyway, now I’ve spoken to one of the good guys, I thought it’d be brilliant to talk to the villains of the piece. Unfortunately, Adam Driver said no (we’ll get you yet, Adam) and the bloke who plays The Emperor was busy, so I was delighted to chat to the generals of the First Order, Domhnall Gleeson and Richard E. Grant (they’re not real generals).
If you haven’t already, you can watch the trailer for Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker below:
And of course, despite having two of the most talented actors in the world in front of me, I wasted no time in wasting their time by asking them 10 ridiculous questions the UNILAD editorial team came up with while everyone else did some actual work.
This is The Ten…
UNILAD: You’ve got a time machine, where’s the first place you’re going?
Domhnall Gleeson: A time machine? And you want to know where the first place I’m going?
Richard E. Grant: [Interrupting] Ancient Egypt. I’m a big fan of Egypt and I would love to meet Cleopatra.
UNILAD: Wow that was incredibly fast. Domhnall, you can go anywhere.
Domhnall Gleeson: God, I know but there’s such a specific time I want to go to it sounds stupid. I’d have loved to have seen the Velvet Underground play so I’d just go back and do that… but that’s boring compared to him [points at Richard E. Grant] so… you know what? No it’s not. I’m going back to see the Velvet Underground!
UNILAD: I like that, be confident in your decisions!
Domhnall Gleeson: Well that’s not going to happen.
UNILAD: What’s the most famous-person thing you’ve ever done?
Domhnall Gleeson: Famous person thing?
UNILAD: Yeah you know. Drinks at a bar? Tickets to a play? Cut the queue at a club?
Richard E. Grant: No. Never.
Domhnall Gleeson: What are you talking about? You did an entire TV show with you staying in the fanciest hotels in the world.
Richard E. Grant: Yeah… but, that was…
Domhnall Gleeson: [Interrupting] No. You would not be able to do that if you weren’t Richard E. Grant.
Richard E. Grant: Oh I don’t know. I don’t think the people in the hotel knew me from a bar of soap… [Domhnall laughs]… I really don’t know? What else have you been told?
UNILAD: Well I can’t give away the secrets of the format Richard, but we’ve had [name redacted] tell us [info redacted].
Richard E. Grant: Oh well I think the thing is that English… or Anglo actors, Irish, English, Scots, we don’t have that type of clout.
UNILAD: You’re an Oscar nominee…
Richard E. Grant: I genuinely don’t think we do though.
Domhnall Gleeson: We should try, have you got a phone on you? Let’s try and get opera tickets.
Richard E. Grant: The only thing you’ll get is slapped.
Domhnall Gleeson: Let’s be honest, it’s the fear of failure that stops [us asking for free stuff].
UNILAD: If you weren’t an actor, what do you think you’d be doing with your life?
Domhnall Gleeson: I mean the honest answer is I think I was trying to be a writer and director, but I’m really not sure that would have worked out so I don’t know. Probably I would have tried to be a writer and director, but I don’t think I would have been very good at it.
UNILAD: You’re a great talent though, surely something in the future?
Domhnall Gleeson: Oh yeah, I mean I’ll definitely try but you know…
UNILAD: No I don’t, where’s the optimism?
Domhnall Gleeson: No, I don’t have any optimism, it’s the end of the day man! I’m on the down.
Richard E. Grant: He’s had some Red Bulls.
Domhnall Gleeson: [Laughs] I have, I have been Red Bulled.
UNILAD: Richard, how about you?
Richard E. Grant: A writer, no doubt.
UNILAD: See that Domnhall, he knew right off the bat and was confident. Why is that Richard?
Richard E. Grant: I’m a nosy Parker.
[Domhnall Gleeson holds his head in his hands]
UNILAD: Okay, we have to keep going. You have one wish and it has to be selfish, what do you wish for? No world peace.
[There was a long, awkward pause before Richard had what can only be described as a look of pure enlightenment]
Richard E. Grant: [Delighted] I’ve already done it! I’ve commissioned a three-foot sculpture of Barbra Streisand’s face…
[There are no words for Domhnall’s reaction so here’s a photo]
Richard E. Grant: …and I’m getting it on January 14.
Domhnall Gleeson: Are you fucking… [speechless]… a three-foot statue of Barbra Streisand? THREE-FOOT?
UNILAD: Don’t mock Dohmnall, where’s the statue going?
Richard E. Grant: [Super proudly] In my garden, and I have a smaller one for inside my house.
Domhnall Gleeson: I’m sorry, I’m just finding this out at the end of the day and I’m wondering if it’s a fever dream.
UNILAD: What would you do?
Domhnall Gleeson: [laughing] Can I have a four-foot statue of Barbra Streisand’s face made? Just to one-up Richard?
Richard E. Grant: [seriously] Don’t. Mock.
Domhnall Gleeson: I’m not mocking I just can’t believe…
UNILAD: Whose career are you secretly jealous of?
Richard E. Grant: Anyone who can sing. Anyone who can sing and really move people because it cuts through every language barrier.
[It later occurred to me he definitely meant he wished he was Barbra Streisand]
Domhnall Gleeson: Anyone who can make people laugh, I think that would be a good one.
UNILAD: So a comedian?
Domhnall Gleeson: Well, a lot of comedians are miserable so no. No, I want to be a happy comedian.
Richard E. Grant: No, look at Jerry Lewis films now, some comedians are as funny as cancer. I disagree with you. Music. Music is forever.
UNILAD: What is a hill you’re willing to die on?
Richard E. Grant: I’m not willing to die at all…
Domhnall Gleeson: Carrauntoohil. That’s a great hill and it’s in Ireland, I’ll die on that.
Richard E. Grant: …Pff, I’m not dying.
UNILAD: What’s something you’ve never admitted publicly but you’ll tell me now?
Domhnall Gleeson: Oh god… [the longest pause in the history of interviews]… do you actually expect me to answer this?
UNILAD: Yeah.
Domhnall Gleeson: You really expect me to admit something I’ve never told anyone before, really? You don’t know me?
UNILAD: But I do want you to tell me something.
Richard E. Grant: Well, I’ve already told you about Barbra Streisand.
Domhnall Gleeson: ALL YOUR ANSWERS COME BACK TO Barbra STREISAND!
UNILAD: Well, at least he’s got Barbra.
Richard E. Grant: If only.
UNILAD: You’re stuck living the same day over and over – what day would it be and why?
Domhnall Gleeson: Today.
[Everyone laughs]
UNILAD: [Hopefully] This interview?
Domhnall Gleeson: This day. No, it just feels like we’ve been doing this forever. Nah, in all seriousness it would be going to the zoo with my grandparents.
Richard E. Grant: Oh that sounds like a good day. A great day to relive would be my two-hour one-to-one with Barbra Streisand! I was this close to her [mimes a face a foot away]. A great day, this summer.
Domhnall Gleeson: Christ, there is a theme isn’t there.
UNILAD: Maybe that’s my headline, ‘Richard E. Grant Loves Barbra Streisand…’
Domhnall Gleeson: That’s already well known…
UNILAD: You didn’t let me finish… ‘And Domhnall Is Weirded Out By It’.
Richard E. Grant: Well, you fancy Jessica Rabbit!
Domhnall Gleeson: [defeated] Oh yeah…
UNILAD: You told me you had nothing to confess? But you fancy Jessica Rabbit!
Domhnall Gleeson: [annoyed] WHEN I WAS A KID… and also now!
UNILAD: Well I’m definitely going to put that in the ‘confession bit’.
Domhnall Gleeson: [Defeated] Damn it, fine…
UNILAD: I’d be a bad journalist if I didn’t probe a bit into the Jessica Rabbit thing, what is it you like?
Domhnall Gleeson: Everything. As a child I was just like, you’re the best woman in the world.
Richard E. Grant: [aside] It’s because she’s a redhead.
[Dohmnall was clearly delighted by this being revealed]
UNILAD: Have you ever been left convinced – or at least persuaded – by a fake news story about yourself?
Domhnall Gleeson: Myself no, but when I was a kid my parents went to the theatre and brought home a programme, and it had all these photos and articles that looked like they were from a newspaper. But there was this one and it was about gold spiders that had started eating people in Dublin, and this one had eaten the arse off this man.
[We had to pause the interview here while Richard E.Grant composed himself]
Domhnall Gleeson: And I was a kid and I was so confused and I thought they were real, and I started half-crying and went to my parents like: ‘These gold spiders, have they got to Malahide yet!’ And my mum was like: ‘No it’s a theatre programme, don’t worry darling.’
Richard E. Grant: I once had someone ring me and ask is it true that you’re dead because I read on Google that you were…
[We now had to pause the interview here while Domhnall Gleeson composed himself]
Richard E. Grant: [laughing] … but I was like, not yet at least.
Dohmnall Gleeson: WHY WOULD THEY CALL TO ASK YOU!?
Richard E. Grant: I have no idea.
UNILAD: You should have told them you were dead.
Richard E. Grant: Oh they sounded so hopeful and were so disappointed that I answered, I couldn’t.
UNILAD: If you had to remove one colour from the world forever, which would it be
Richard E. Grant: Orange.
UNILAD: … and why? I didn’t even get a chance to finish why so certain?
[Domhnall Gleeson in the moment realising what that means for him]
Domhnall Gleeson: AND WHAT THE HELL WOULD I DO?
Richard E. Grant: That’s not orange [pointing at hair] it’s spun gold.
Domhnall Gleeson: Don’t mention spun gold! It makes me think of the spiders!
Richard E. Grant: I’m talking Fanta Orange, that colour it looks like pizza vomit.
Domhnall Gleeson: Mine would be beige because it’s so dull and certain people like to make everything beige when they decorate a room – I just think it’s bullshit.
Richard E. Grant: I’m going to redress, orange is in, beige is out.
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker is in cinemas now.
The Oscar-nominated actor gushes about joining Star Wars
By Karen Han
Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker introduces an exciting new baddie: Allegiant General Pryde. Played by Richard E. Grant, the First Order officer is icy in a way that recalls Grand Moff Tarkin — the complete opposite of Grant himself. The actor, recently Oscar-nominated for 2018’s Can You Ever Forgive Me?, is a Star Wars super fan, and speaks about his experience on Episode IX with awe.
Polygon spoke with Grant prior to the film’s release, learning a little more about the mysterious Pryde as well as how working on Star Wars is like stepping into The Wizard of Oz.
Polygon: Up until this point you’ve said you couldn’t say much about the movie out of fear that you would get fired. It seems like at this point they can’t fire you anymore. Is there anything you can say about exploring your character and what happens in the film?
Richard E. Grant: I think that what’s extraordinary about what J.J. [Abrams] and Chris Terrio have done is that they’ve really delivered something that’s so unexpected. As a lifelong Star Wars fan, never mind being in it, it sort of emotionally wallops you. You feel delivered by the end of it, in the most cathartic sense of the word. I had reservations about how they would be able to integrate previously shot [footage] of Carrie Fisher, who I knew very well, into the movie, but it’s seamless, and it seems like it was specifically shot for this movie and that’s a testament to the writer-director team.
With regards to your character, the Imperial forces and First Order have, up until this point, broadly been space Nazis. Is your take on General Pryde in that vein, or maybe something a little fresher than that?
I think that if you’re playing somebody who is malevolent incarnate — i.e., somebody who has no sense of humor whatsoever and is determined to take advantage of every opportunity to step on somebody else’s feet, heads, and take their position — it’s a very clear line of what to do. There’s a certain droll sort of undertone to some of the lines I was given the opportunity to deliver. But otherwise, the trajectory of somebody who is basically an SS officer all the way up in the Nazi Party, it’s not a huge amount of room to maneuver.
It was fairly straightforward in the way that that malevolent evil, ambitious trajectory in any job is. It’s the normalization of evil that makes it more frightening because there’s no shouting, or you don’t see people being beaten up, but you know that this person has the iron will to carry out or give orders to other people, underlings, to do that on his behalf.
Did you end up meeting any of the droids while you were on set?
Yeah, I met all of them. I went to watch Anthony Daniels shoot scenes. I wasn’t in any scenes with him directly, but I would watch him do the scenes because, again, you feel like you’re a kid in the kind of Disneyland version of this. The sets were so astonishingly detailed, and I had imagined that it would be green screen and that everything would be computer-generated afterwards. But almost with no exception, everything that you touch, every button, every corridor you’ve walked down or things that explode, happened. There was a part with the galaxy starscape that you see beyond the windows of the spaceships, that was the only green screen. Everything else was sets for real, hydraulic doors closed. Just like they do [in] the movie.
How deep are you into Star Wars lore? Were there Easter eggs that you were able to pick out on set, or was it the sheer awe of being on practical set?
It felt more than anything like being — you know that moment in The Wizard of Oz where it goes from black and white in the end of the tornado, and the door opens, and suddenly everything goes to Technicolor? You watch these movies all your life. You then walk onto a set and onto this spaceship, and there are stormtroopers and lightsabers — all of these things for real. That’s what it felt like. It is for real and therefore utterly surreal at the same time.
I understand you saw the first Star Wars movie when you were still in drama school. After that, did you keep watching them as they came out or was it catching them when you had the time?
I’ve seen all of them as they’ve come out, and I’ve got all the toys that I collected, and the figures, and all of that. I’m a decadeslong Star Wars fan.
Are there any toys or memorabilia that you have that you’re particularly proud of or that you treasure the most?
No, I think that would be like trying to say which children are your favorite. I like all of them.
What the first thing that you bought?
I can’t remember what the first thing was, because I got a whole bunch at the same time.
Besides watching the movies, I’m curious if you played any of the spinoff games or read any of the books that came out as the series kind of grew bigger and bigger?
No, I’ve not done that. I’ve never played a video game in my life because I’m probably the wrong generation. I’ve never bought the books, either. I’m a movie addict, so that’s where my passion has stayed — true to the movies.
The prequels have stirred up the most discussion among fans as to whether they’ve stood the test of time. What do you think?
Ah, I think that the originals have stood the test of time
Out of the entire series, do you have a favorite Star Wars villain?
Oh, Darth Vader, yeah.
Have you been watching The Mandalorian at all?
Not yet, no.
Have you seen Baby Yoda?
I have not.
Have you heard anything about him?
Yes, I’ve heard. I’ve heard and I’ve read, but I’ve not seen it. I’ve been doing a TV series [AMC’s Dispatches from Elsewhere] with Sally Field and Jason Segel in Philadelphia for the last five months. I’ve been cocooned from Baby Yoda.
The First Look At Richard E. Grant In ‘Star Wars: The Rise Of Skywalker’ Has Been Revealed
Lucasfilm LTD/Disney
The first look has been revealed of Richard E. Grant in ‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’, courtesy of Entertainment Weekly. His name has also been revealed: First Order Allegiant General Pryde. As ComicBook.com points out, this is the first character in ‘Star Wars’ with the rank of “Allegiant General.” It is expected that he will share scenes with General Hux (Domnhall Gleeson) and possibly even Supreme Leader Kylo Ren (Adam Driver).
Back in January, Grant discussed the secrecy that comes with being in a ‘Star Wars’ picture, and whether or not it was worth it. He replied:
“Oh, it’s definitely worth it. If you’re a Star Wars fan, and I am, then knowing what’s coming in this is quite something. I absolutely understand why they’re so secretive about it, because it’s very exciting. Yes, I am in the last Star Wars. I have no idea [if I’ll be recognizable [to die-hard fans]] because I’ve not even been allowed to tell my family what the name of my character is. If I told you I would get fired. We’re not even allowed to take the script home. There is a lot of security.”
Unfortunately, this reveal bursts the bubble that some fans had that Grant was playing Grand Admiral Thrawn, a character from some of the novels who has also appeared in the animated series ‘Star Wars Rebels’.
Speaking of his audition, that was equally as mysterious, Grant told the Happy Sad Confused podcast:
“I got sent a 10-page generic sort of, I think, it was an interrogation scene clearly from a 1940s British B-picture because the references were not Star Wars and the language was something that my grandfather would have spoken in and I thought, you know, the three contrasting scenes that you were supposed to show as much versatility you could muster in a self-taping situation. So I did that and sent it off and it goes into cyberspace and you don’t even think about it again because it’s what actors, you know, what you do all the time, you audition, send stuff out and never hear [back].”/
It remains to be seen if Allegiant General Pryde will become a classic ‘Star Wars’ villain, but we won’t have long to wait.
‘Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker’ is due in theaters on December 20.
The REG Temple is the official website for actor, author and director Richard E. Grant.
