Hugh Grant’s rom-com days are over.

The actress, who rose to prominence by appearing in some of the genre’s greatest films (Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill, Bridget Jones’ Diary, and Love Actually), is relieved to be free of romantic comedies at the age of 63.

While promoting his new film Wonka, Grant reconnected with another rom-com great, Music and Lyrics co-star Drew Barrymore, on her talk program, The Drew Barrymore Program, and informed her that his work had been “lovely” recently.

In response to his post-rom-com renaissance, which Barrymore, 48, termed the “Hugh-aissance,” the actor quipped, “I told you I got a bit better.”

“I got a little less bad after I had children, got married, and got happier,” he went on to say. “I got too old and fat and ugly to do romantic comedies, obviously, so I got off with more interesting things.”

Barrymore rebuffed this (“I don’t see you that way at all”) and proposed they recreate their on-screen chemistry from 2007’s Music and Lyrics.

“We really need to do another one,” she remarked.

Grant also remarked that, while he is done with “sweet roles,” he still enjoys them.

“I adore those movies.” I love that they’re still popular, but I’ve never felt comfortable doing them,” he told Barrymore. “I’m not sure about you, but I prefer a mask.” I wish I could be someone else. Then it liberates me, and I like performing.”

Grant has acted in action films such as 2023’s Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and dramas such as HBO’s The Undoing, for which he received an Emmy nomination.

When asked what he still wants to accomplish in his life, both professionally and personally, Grant had an unexpected answer for Barrymore.

“I’ve done my personal life,” says the actor, who is married to Anna Eberstein and has three children with her. He also has two children from his previous relationship with Tinglan Hong.

“I’m very happily married, great girl, lovely children,” he remarked, before adding that he’s “done, finished, cooked.”

Grant, on the other hand, has unfinished business in his profession.

“On a professional level, I want to finish that book.” “I wrote half a novel that I need to finish,” he said.

How would Grant “find the time” to finish the manuscript? Barrymore wondered. “Well, I won’t ever, and then I’ll die unsatisfied and miserable,” he said with a laugh.

Grant has never been hesitant about his dislike for previous roles—or, more specifically, the things he had to perform for them.

During an ABC News program commemorating the 20th anniversary of Love Actually in 2022, the actor acknowledged that he despised his dance sequence in the classic Christmas rom-com.

When he first watched the scene in which his character, the prime minister, dances to The Pointer Sisters’ “Jump,” he thought to himself, “Well, I’ll hate doing that.”

“I didn’t fancy doing the dance at all, let alone rehearsing it,” he admitted, sarcastically referring to the now-iconic sequence as a “contractual guillotine.”

“And I’m out of rhythm, by the way, especially at the beginning when I wiggle my ass,” he went on to say.