Time and time again I was told that I would never make the film on time and never make it on budget. That kind of criticism tends to turn me into a great big motor of efficiency.

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.