I am drawn to writing and directing as it is most like the feeling I had when I was a teenager with my puppet theatre. You are more in control of everything and involved in every aspect of production, so more challenged and fulfilled.

After casting him as the alcoholic Withnail director Bruce Robinson made Grant drink a bottle of champagne and half a bottle of vodka during the course of a night so that he had experience of the sensation. His South African mother Leonne was a local ballet teacher. He also voiced a version of the Ninth Doctor for the BBC original animated webcast Scream of the Shalka.

Grant (born Richard Esterhuysen; 5 May 1957) is a British-Swazi actor screenwriter and director. Richard E. Grant came to public attention in 1987 for playing Withnail in the film Withnail and I and achieved international recognition as John Seward in 1992 blockbuster Bram Stoker's Dracula.