Hugh Grant on Florence Foster Jenkins award: "I'm very grateful to Meryl Streep for not demanding Daniel Day-Lewis instead"

The actor gave an hilarious acceptance speech after winning the Best Actor award at this year's Evening Standard British Film Awards
Daniel Orton9 December 2016

Hugh Grant had his audience in fits of laughter during his winner's speech at this year's Evening Standard British Film Awards.

The star, 56, was accepting the Best Actor award for his portrayal of St Clair Bayfield in Florence Foster Jenkins, which also starred Meryl Streep as the eponymous Jenkins.

Referring to his co-star he said: "I'm very grateful to Meryl for not having a tantrum on the first day and demanding Daniel Day-Lewis or something."

Gently poking fun at the hosts, Grant commented that he felt "fondly towards the Evening Standard" and how it had always been a big part of his life.

He joked that "the man who first flashed at me on the Tube when I was 13 did it through a hole in the Evening Standard."

On a more touching note, the actor also thanked his children who he said had made him "much nicer, and much better at the love bits."

"I couldn't have done the film without them," he said, to applause from the audience.

Kate Beckinsale won the New West End Company Award for Best Actress for her role in Love & Friendship, an adaptation of a lost and unfinished Jane Austen novella.

After sharing her own tale of being flashed, Beckinsale took the opportunity to thank her director Whit Stillman for his "love for tricky, difficult, clever, awful, women".

She revealed that he had her in mind for the role of Lady Vernon several years ago but "waited for [her] to ripen like an old cheese" so the actress could convincingly play the mother of a 16-year-old girl.

For more highlights from the Evening Standard British Film Awards 2016, visit the Evening Standard YouTube channel.

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