Hugh Grant: 5 Awesome Performances And 5 That Sucked

5 Awesome Performances...

5. Daniel Cleaver - Bridget Jones' Diary

To kick off our list of awesome Hugh Grant performances, then, we're opting for Daniel Cleaver, his character in the flawed but otherwise charming filmic adaptation of the infamous Helen Fielding novel. Well established at this point in his career for playing inherently good and incredibly bumbling protagonists, Bridget Jones' Diary poised Grant as an irresistible ladies' man and the de facto object of the titular character's romantic obsessions. Ahem! Of course, the big twist comes when Jones realises that Cleaver - who she believes to be a good man - is actually a cheat and an asshole. Given that we'd all been conditioned at this point into thinking that it was impossible for Hugh Grant to play anybody who wasn't of good moral character, the effect was both surprising and clever. And Grant pulls it off brilliantly, convening the exact right amount of chauvinistic swagger needed for such a part.