Mad, Sad and Bad with Paloma Faith - Richard E. Grant: My Dad Tried To Shoot Me

Episode Date: January 27, 2026

It’s not every day a certified LEGEND like Richard E. Grant comes round for a chat on my sofa. Nicknamed the ‘Kindest Man in Hollywood’, he is an Oscar-nominated actor who starred in blockbusters like Withnail & I, Dracula and Saltburn.We covered everything from his turbulent childhood, losing his wife Joan of 38 years, being betrayed by a close friend - oh and Richard’s love of the Traitors. Richard also got a reading from my favourite tarot card-reading drag queen Miss Leigh Ding! Also, I still can’t believe he bumped into Olivia Coleman on the way here?!Thanks so much to @miss.leigh.ding for the amazing tarot!—Find us on: Instagram / TikTok / YouTube—Credits:Producer: Emilia GillAssistant Producer: Alex ReedVideo: Harry Sawkins, Jake Ji & Lizzie McCarthySound: Rafi Amsili GeovannettiOriginal music: BUTCH PIXYSocial Media: Laura CoughlanExec Producer for JamPot: Ewan Newbigging-ListerExec Producers for Idle Industries: Dave Granger & Will Macdonald Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Hello, I'm Paloma Faith and this is my show. Each week I welcome someone fantastic into my home to talk about what makes them mad, sad and bad. Roll recording! To you, he's an Oscar-nominated actor and writer whose memoir, Pocketful of Happiness, sums him up perfectly. His four-decade career was launched by With Nell and I in 1987. Since then, he's been on the big screen in hits like Dracula, Star Wars and Saltburn,

More recently he's become a surprise Instagram sensation, whether it's local park run or a speedboat on Lake Como. It all comes with a beautiful grin, a bona fide cultural icon. He's been dubbed both Hollywood's happiest man and the nicest man in showbiz. But to me, he's an icon of kindness and joy and someone who will always say hello, even if he's talking to someone far more famous and interesting than me. He's fun and emanates good spirit and makes you feel accepting of your own naughtiness when he's around. My favourite memory is when he tried to sell me perfume made of marijuana.

I love him and so does anyone who ever hears his name. It's the gorgeous Richard E. Grant. It's like being dead. I know. And hearing what they might say and you think, it can't be true. It's just all, here he was. Yeah, next. Yes, it is true.

It's very strange. But moving on from that, because it is uncomfortable. Extremely uncomfortable. Sorry, but you've done a lot. I know, as I'm very old. Do you think normality's mad? What's your definition of normality? I think that I definitely don't partake in it

because people constantly tell me I'm not that. Yeah, I've been told that my whole life. Yeah, and I think that's the best team to be on. Is it? Well, it's a bit more liberating. I feel like it feels little restrictive to be normal in small questions. But wouldn't life be easier if you were or other people saw you as being completely normal? If you were completely ignorant with it, yes.

Ignorant with it. What do you think? I don't know when people say that's not normal behaviour or this is not what you're supposed to do. I've heard that my whole life. So I just think, well, after a bit you think, well, I'm going to try this. And all the people who said you shouldn't do this, when you prove, that you can do something, it's very satisfying and very annoying for them. And everyone says we always knew he'd do that.

Yeah, they always do without fail. We always knew he'd be a success. Yeah. Yeah. Yeah. The very people who said, you haven't got a chance, mate. Yeah. Oh, he's delusional.

That's what I've had as well. But a lot of the people who've come on this podcast had said that, like, their whole lives, they've been told they were deluded for their ambitions, and now they're sitting here going, actually, I did do some of it. Yeah. But have you met people? that are actually completely deluded. Like when you see those auditions on...

The X-Factor. Yeah. And you see people who absolutely believe that they have talent. Yeah. My mother told me I was the greatest singer of all time. Yeah. Yeah. But don't you love them?

Yeah, I love that. But then there's always that, you know, that imposter syndrome that you always think... They're going to work out. You know, they're going to work out that I'm as bad as that person can't sing a notes. When's the biggest amount of... imposter syndrome you've had in your career?

Oh, it's on a fairly daily basis. I think real life is really hard and working's quite easy. Yeah, because working, you've got the rules and you've got the words to say or the things to sing. So you know exactly what you're doing. It's real life that... Terrifying. Tell me about your maddest moment leading up to... You talk a bit about the Oscars.

Yeah, that was... It was mad in the sense that Melissa McCarthy and I did a movie that was essentially a two-hander, low budget for Fox Searchlight called Can You Over Forgive Me? And we did it in 2017. And then in 2019, we went to a film festival. You have. To a film festival in Telly Ride. It's a ski resort in the Colorado Mountains.

And it's shown there to people all wearing lumberjacks and. like a ski resort. And we didn't think anything would happen at the end. The whole, you know, we could hear people laughing and we could then hear people crying. And we knew by the response that something had sort of happened in that room. And then immediately the review started coming out from the Hollywood reporter and all those things. And then I said, oh, we're going to see you. We're going to see you next February, March.

And I said, what do you mean? They said, oh, that's when the Oscars are. And you go, yeah. I mean, it's, it seems ludicrous because my experience of America is that I've cut everything in half because they always say, oh, Paloma, we're so excited. And then they see a donut and they go, we're so excited. So, you know, there's a kind of, it's like the food portions.

You have to cut them in half to actually get what they're really trying to tell you. And then it's snowboarder. We went to Toronto Film Festival and then it just got more and more. And then you get an Oscar nomination. and you can't really believe it. So it is a kind of madness because you spend six months on this awards trail

having no idea whether you're going to make it to the next point. And you don't earn any money, but they fly you everywhere and they put you in fabulous hotels and you have to do all this campaigning and go to screenings in follow.

And, you know, there's the stuff in the Las Vegas odds about whether you're going to win or not And it's very hard to try and not drink the Kool-Aid of it. But in my category, I was in best-supporting nomination that year. The other four nominees, and we all got to know each other, we knew that Mahershala Ali was going to win for Green Book. It was just one of those dead certs that year.

So it made it much easier. So if you had to say, you know, have you prepared an acceptance speech? You just go, yeah, I'd like to thank Marshall, I'll have dropping dead because otherwise it wouldn't be here right now. You know, it's one of those situations. So, and the other thing that was absolutely astonishing to me is that people that I had not heard from in 45 years came out of the woodwork. Not in a, I want your money way. Just to say, you did good. Or I knew this was going to happen to you.

Yeah, the classic. Yeah, the classic. It's all because of me. Yeah. So, and then, of course, you know, when you're going to do. don't win, there's this terrible, you know, disappointment for they feel and that you almost have to console them for that you didn't win. It's amazing to me that even nominated.

Well, that's what I thought. And you were in a room full of people, you just go, I mean, I'm quite, I'm one of those people who's not all, not easily impressed, but I've been to like something like the Met Gala, and that's a similar equivalent way. You're just in the room and you look around and you're like, these are all people. I never thought I'd lay eyes on in the flesh. And they're just here. And it's very difficult not to just be like, wow.

And there was a few there for you, weren't there? It were. I've been a lifelong Barbara Streisand, obsessive. Huge. Huge. And so she came on to the stage at the Kodak Theatre to present an award to Spike Lee. And I absolutely lost it. I was literally a sort of six-foot-two human erection the moment she walked on stage,

followed by the rest of the two thousand other people in the room followed suit. But I'd posted on Twitter 10 days before the Oscars a letter that I had written to her when I was 15. And I took a selfie outside her gates in Malibu with the permission of the security guard. And then this thing went viral the next day. And our daughter called up from London and said, Dad, have you looked at your Twitter today? And I said, no, not yet. She said, Barbara Streisand has replied to you. I said, don't fuck with me.

This means too much. It's too cruel to do this. And it was true. And she said, Dear Richard, thank you for the beautiful letter you wrote when I was 15. I didn't get it. Congratulations in your latest movie, the Melissa McCarthy. Love Barbara. And I lost it. You know, it's just unbelievable. So then I met her, had a 20-minute conversation. And I subsequently had a two-hour, one. to one. She'd be sitting right here, well, here, because she favours her left profile.

Only a real fan would know that. Yeah, yeah. And so the end of this conversation, I said to her, I have something to confess, and she said, what's that? And I said, I've commissioned a two-foot-tore sculpture of your face, favouring your left profile for my garden in London. And she said, no, you're crazy. And I said, yes, I know that. You know that I am. She said, no, you are really crazy. Have you ever lost your mind? Yes, coming here today, because I took five trains and there were three cancellations and pony and trap involved and i just i was in liverpool station and olivia coleman who was completely covered up like this said hello hello and i said hi and she said are you all right and i said oh i'm sorry i'm trying to get to trying to get to

the outer hebrides of northeast london and she said what are you doing then i said i'm doing a podcast with Paloma and she said, oh, I love Palona, give him my luck. Oh, I love that. We've been trying to get her on us. That made me feel better. Good luck. Good luck. Need a lot of money. I mean, have you been completely mad? No, but I, well, I feel like my most authentic moment, like, I remember a time when I was in Spain and I was 21. I was doing a master's degree in directing for theatre. And I went to Spain and it started raining and I just suddenly had this thing click in my head that I was like I think I'm free of giving a shit and it was like so nice I think it was at 21 and it was pissing down

rain and I just went out in my jeet my t-shirt and shorts in the rain and I just ran around Seville on my own getting completely drenched and all these people were shouting from the rain and I was hysterically laughing like ha ha ha ha and then I was like I'm not even mad. I'm just completely free of worrying. And then since then I've kind of thought, oh, that was the best feeling. That was a better feeling than caring for all those years before, trying to fit in or being worried about whether people liked me. Although I do still worry a lot about whether people like me. Do you? I think that's the most normal human thing that you want, unless you live in a cave. Yeah, you want to be accepted or liked or understood or, yeah, all of those things.

Do you ever go to bed at night and then wake up in the morning and think, I've done something wrong, but you're not quite sure what it is? Oh, I always know what I've done wrong. Okay. Yeah. That's good. People usually tell me. Oh, no. If you're an actor, even when you haven't done something wrong, a critic may decide that you have done something very wrong.

And that is something that is, you know, you can't, I can remember the, I got the word. worst review I got was I was doing Shakespeare, two Shakespeare plays, with Natasha Richardson in Regents Park, agricultural Shakespeare, as we called it. And the review that I got was that Richard E. Grant is more wooden than the surrounding trees. Oh, no. I can trump that. You're crushed for a day. I'm not to hear it. And then the cast gave me a sort of old plank with my name inscribed across it and presented in the green room before a show. Just a... You can't wind me up. Yeah, you can't.

What was your worst? This journalist said, sometimes you go to the newsagent in the confectionary section and you see a beautifully wrapped, wonderful chocolate bar that you think is a new one and you think, I'm going to purchase that

because it's going to be divine. And you open it only to realize that it was a turd wrapped in foil. Called a paloma. That was for the MME. I actually thought I was going to frame it at some point, but then I thought maybe it's not good to bring that energy.

But don't you think that it's what you always most actors I know fixate or remember the worst stuff that's been said about them and the praise you either don't believe or you don't remember it? Is that the same for you? 100%. You think that they're the

correct reviews and anyone who says, you're wonderful is probably because they're blowing smoke up your bum and it doesn't mean anything. Exactly. Your dad tried to shoot you. Yeah.

Just throwing it in there casually. I think one of the great perks of being a neurodivergent is that I'm very comfortable with jumping from your problems with TFL to your own father trying to shoot you. Yeah. But you always have to give the context of something. Yeah. Well. Don't you? Yeah, but I just, in that, I'd say when an adult is trying to shoot their young son, I would say there's not many contexts that were just to.

justify it. Well, I did, he was very drunk and I did empty out a crate of his Scotch whiskey. And he was quite dependent on alcohol. He was. So he got very angry about that justifiably. And so that's quite a mad thing. I think taking it to the extreme of, you know, I'm going to blow your brains out. That, I suppose, but, you know, people are under the influence of stuff. They do, they do stuff that they don't really mean. It does bring some stuff out that potentially we could argue was there already. Well, like when people get drunk and they say oh it's because I was drunk I don't know how much I buy that excuse oh I do also the child of an alcoholic just to say but if the person you know my my father blacked out

you know and he would have no memory of what he'd done he knew that something terrible had happened that's really difficult when dealing with the madness of alcoholism though because you're like it's so vivid for you yeah and then you're like you did this and they say you're making it up yeah and you're like not being believed that is a very cruel part of it. When you've gone to the extreme of that stuff, then everything else is relative. So, you know, getting stuck on TFL,

relative to almost being shot, is, it's all, you know, it's relative. And, you know, when you talk about it was a normal childhood or abnormal or unusual, whatever, if that's your norm, then you don't, you see other families

and you think, well, they don't seem to be having that violence going on around them. But it's still what that, you know, that's the house did you grow up in, your parents. But you made sure you didn't perpetuate it. Well, I don't know whether it was luck or genetic or whatever, but I found out when I was 17 that I'm allergic to alcohol. It's such a brilliant thing.

I know. Do you go red and fall asleep? No, I go red, my throat closes up, and I get a rash, and I'm violently ill for about 24 hours. Well, that's not so nice. It puts you off that you don't. And the doctor said to me when I sent him a blood test. He said, you can never, ever drink alcohol.

It's completely toxic to your system. Moving on to SAD, which is kind of like, I feel guilty asking you because I know how awful it's been grief for you. And how open and vocal you have been about it. But in some ways, it's like become the source of many people's joy. Yeah. You're the way that you speak about grief. So thank you for that on behalf of everyone. I completely have, you know, it's four years since my wife,

38 years died. And I understand it rationally that I've never seen touch, talk to her ever again. But emotionally, my brain cannot compute that I will never, that she's gone. So it sort of reconfigured. and I just instinctively started writing to her every night. That is the hardest bit to get used to. But I now do, and the trick of memory is so extraordinary in that a year ago, I only remembered her in full health

rather than in the poor health of the last eight months of her life. So if I suddenly find a picture of her on my phone of when she was ill, it's a real shock because my memory has sort of reconfigured, which I suppose what you do, your survival industry. instinct to only remember the good bits. And I think, you know, out of the 38 years we were together, only eight months of those 38 years were in diminishing health. So relatively, it's, I remember the good bits.

That's a wonderful way of looking at it. Do you think she would be pleased with the way that you deal with your grief? Or would you think, have you sometimes to have a voice in your head saying, Richard just bloody shut up. Oh, that voice is constantly here. Shut up. Why are you telling Paloma all this stuff? Who wants to hear?

You know, she was Aberdonian Scots and very down to earth. And no, you know, she had a very strong bullshitometer. So I think that... My kind of gal. And yours. Yeah, she would just said, you know, just cut it down. don't, you know, blah,

shut up. Maybe I should, but I'm a blabber math like you are. Yeah, well, it's just so much easier, isn't it? It is.

It is. Not to have to remember any lies or stuff like that. Oh, yeah. Imagine having to remember who you've told what to. I just know I've told everyone everything. So much easier, isn't it?

Yeah. I think secrets absolutely are toxic. I agree. And I've seen people tortured by it. So corrosy. about stuff. Because in every single family that I've ever encountered or every person I've met, there's somebody who is an addict or a philanderer or a... Aggressive. Psychopath or...

Yeah. Narcissist. Yeah. ...or, you know, all the good things and the bad things. Every... I don't think there's any family that escapes that. Yeah. No.

I don't. I don't think that I definitely know for sure that I don't connect with people who don't have all those in their lives. Yeah. You're drawn to them. Yeah, I'm totally. So drawn, I'm like, oh my God, you must. I always say to people when I have a good night with him, you must be so traumatized.

I adore you. The best people. Yeah. How did Joan respond when you used to cry? Well, I cry a lot, and I cry every day. And if I watch the news, I don't anymore. But that makes me cry. And joyous stuff makes me cry, too.

Moved. And you? I'm quite an easy crier as well. I've got Spanish blood, so quite dramatic. Ah, right. No, because our daughter and I would be, if we're watching, if we're sitting on the sofa watching TV, and I would lean forward and Joan was sitting between us,

and she'd say, what is wrong with you too? She'd go, oh, God, pull it together. So she wasn't as much of a crowd? No, she was very emotionally, Scottishly withheld. And I don't know whether that's Calvinism or what that is, but she was much more restrained in her emotions than I am. And I've been accused of having too many by people. How can you have too many?

Oh, because it's sort of overflows. It's like, put it away. I think it's lovely. So do I. But there are people that find it very confrontational, that get us way too much. Yeah, it's uncomfortable for them. Yeah, too much.

Yeah, I mean, I quite like public crying. Do you? Yeah. Have you ever cried and looked at, But you just stand in Liverpool, stoking. Just, yeah. Yeah. Have you ever looked at yourself in the mirror crying just to check what you look like?

Have you? Come on a minute. You're a liar. I think this is the first lie. I know you have, Richard. You work up a big old blub and then go, oh. Yeah, you look really. That's looking attractive.

Really tragic. You're really feeling it, Richard. No, no. I have been at a famous person. funeral and been photographed and seen that afterwards. And that is, that's a shock when you see what you look like when you are crying. What was your impression? It looked grim.

It doesn't look nice, is it? But one of the greatest moments in my life of crying, I remember it when I was young and I was living in a house share with a load of people, was this, I'd broken up with a boyfriend and I was really like, and he just came up to him and went, God, you look so ugly when you're crying. And I just burst out laughing. It was the best thing for me.

I was like, oh God, perspective, you're right. I better just stop. Do you think you can ever recover from loss? I don't think of it like that. I think that it's something that you go, you navigate your way around it and you don't get over it. And when people come out with the platitudes, all well-meaning as it is, of saying, oh, time will heal or you'll get over it. I've not thought of that way.

I've not wanted to get over it. No. Because then it's almost like you're saying, well, that person's life, that's finished and done with. You know, what's new in the pen? Yeah. There's always a space held by that person, whether they're there or not. Yeah. That's nice.

But I think that people, certainly four years down the line now, people keep saying to me, you know, are you going to date and, you know, are you looking out there? Have you gone on this app that you can meet people? And it genuinely has not crossed my mind. Maybe it will. You know, I could walk out the door and go, bang, this person's made me falling in love with them. That wouldn't be a replacement. It would be a different thing. Yeah.

It would be another thing altogether. And the space that was left would never be filled. it would just be something new, wouldn't it? Yeah. Sounds like a cooking program you're talking about now, the space that would have been filmed. By puff pastry. So I'm going to move you on to bad.

Yes, bad. Betrayal. This is a big one for you. Betrayal, yeah. Taurus. I've been told that my star sign is, I know nothing about them, but I've been told by somebody that said

Torreans are very unforgiving. if you cross them. I was, what I thought was one of the five best friends of my life that I was at university and drama school with and lived with. And she sent an email from Africa to a mutual friend in Australia who'd asked for my email address. And because my name was in the body of the email, the email address, it wasn't in the copied or whatever.

Somehow through what electronic or whatever, I got inadvertently sent this email. And it arrived on a day when I had heard for the third time that a film that I had written and was about to direct, the finances had collapsed. And I was doing the final episode of Frazier, staying with Steve Martin in L.A. And at 11 o'clock in the morning, just as I was about to go to work, I got this email. It wasn't intended for me to see. but there was a paragraph of such toxicity. About you? Yeah.

And I thought this person is that's not a real friend anymore. And I was absolutely devastated. So I copied and pasted that and then sent it back and I said 29 years of friendship, question mark. So. That must have been awful. Yeah. And I've never seen that person ever since. What was it an annihilation of your character?

It was of my script that I had written, which was entirely autobiographical. And she had read this script. And so there was no reason for her to tell this other person. And you know, I also understand that what people say behind your back is what they say behind your back. But you don't know what they've said. But when I saw that. And our daughter was very smart because she was 16. So it's exactly 20 years ago.

she said to me in your heart of hearts haven't you always known this about that person So bright And I went wow She said I think you

She said you've taken too long a pause To answer dad I think you've always known That at some level There's kind of jealousy Or whatever it is Yeah And maybe she was

Maybe she's right It must have been so hard Oh it's brutal Because if you Because that person knows you In the most formative part of your life, you know, before, you know, when you're still dreaming of getting regular work

as an actor, no mind the other things that have happened to me since. So when you're betrayed like that, it's, there's no going back for me. Are you forgiving? I'm very forgiving, but I think I've, I don't know if I've ever experienced that kind of betrayal. Oh, you would know if you had. Because I, I have actually once when I was younger, but I'm quite, I'd say, I'm a bit oblivious. So, Quite often, yeah, quite often I just walk around like, everyone's wonderful, because I don't really like to bring, I don't want to be mistrusting. Like, it seems exhausting to walk around life,

not sure who to trust all the time. So I tend to just think everyone's wonderful. And then if they show me otherwise, I just back out really quickly. But if one of your besties portrayed you in writing, what would your reaction be? Well, devastated. Yeah. And I think that there's a big thing.

thing about, um, there's a big thing for me about things not being what they seem that's like a huge, I hate that. It reminds me of childhood when my parents both, well, not both, my mum really would try and like cover stuff up to protect me. Yeah. And bad stuff had happened. And then I just remember as a kid seeing signs and asking questions and being like, no, don't, don't worry, nothing and feeling like a bit of a, like a bit of a prat really for believing it or wanting to believe it. Yeah. And then finding out the truth and being like, oh no, I was an idiot. Isn't that a weird thing that happens though, that when you're fed the Kool-Aid of what

you're supposed to believe that's going on, that you feel guilty for what the wrong bit has happened. That's what I find. So, and I suppose it is, why didn't I know rather? Why didn't I know? Why didn't I do something? Yeah. Yeah. That's so awful that happened to you. I don't think I'm very, I've never betrayed anyone really with, and intentionally. Like I've never been a two-faced person.

Yeah. But I have been in trouble a lot for saying what I think. Yeah. So one of my. But you were betrayed very recently and very publicly. Yes, on traitors. You were. You were.

So I rest my case. Have you recovered from that? Yes. I think, yeah. Have you been able to forgive? Yeah, I do forgive him. But it was hard. Very reluctant.

I wouldn't do it. I think it was a genius move because. Everyone's praising it. Because nobody, you know, it was so. The whole series was everyone going, but he wouldn't be him. He couldn't possibly. He's a nice guy. He would never do that to his bestie.

But he did. Yeah. Well played. Yeah. And his charity has, you know, to make you the honorary patron. How long did it take before you could actually speak to him? Did you have to have counselling and therapy, drugs? No, I think I was... Did he call you?

Yeah, he did. He left me a voice note. And did you go... I just was like, oh, I'm not... I'm very honest. I was like, I'm not going to lie, I was a little bit. I was upset and I was shocked. I mean, you could see on my face on the camera, There was a genuine... Slapped ass.

But I didn't know it was him at that time either, so I was... Of course not. Nobody knew. I've watched every iteration of it all over the place. No. Would you do it? Would I do it? I'm sure they wouldn't ask me.

They are going to ask you. Oh, okay. Have you been a bad man before? Have I been a bad man? Have I been a bad man? I don't know. I'm sure that, you know, there was somebody, you know, if they see this or hear this, we'll write in and say, oh yeah, I knew.

he did this or, you know, there's always, you will, just by... Yeah, but there's little bits and Bob's like, you're on your phone, someone asks you for an autograph and you're like, sorry, no, I'm busy, I'm on the phone, but that's not bad. Somebody did slide the phone with a camera on underneath a public loo and I said, not today. Please, can you just give me two seconds and you can have a selfie while I'm washing my hands, but please don't do this now. You were very, very polite in that sense.

You have to be careful because if somebody films you or you're abusive in some way, that's you get cancelled in a nanosecond. Do you think? Yeah, I know. Yeah. Even though you're urinating or whatever else you do love? Taking a dump. And somebody says, he didn't let me.

He didn't let me take. He didn't let me take a picture. of him and all I just stuck it under the loo. Why not? You think, well, all right, why not? It was enough you got to smell my shit now. Fuck off. Sorry, I had to bring it to that level. All right. Do you think your soul enters you when you're born, like an old soul or a new soul or whatever? No, I think it's here now and you're born and that's your DNA going back. And then at the end, it's just it. My wife asked me just two days before she died. She said, what do you think happens? Because she had,

had given up Christianity about two years before she got ill and I said I think it's exactly like trying to remember what it was like being unborn or what it's like when you are asleep you know you if you dream it's in the last three minutes just before you wake up but in the middle of the night you have no idea and I find that very reassuring and comforting that it's just you it's it's it's done so I don't believe that you go anywhere or that I mean I'd love to believe that a spirit could manifest itself and there'd be

a ghost or you could encounter that person again but I've had no experience of that whatsoever. If you could go anywhere though and you were wrong I'd love to be proved wrong where would you want to go? Where would I want to go? And your last breath?

To be with you. Charmer. Liarer. No, I think you know, you always I always want to be reunited with the person that's gone ahead of you, you know, but that is the fantasy that underpins my understanding and reading of it. All religion promises you that, because it's what you would like to have. But nobody's come back.

You know, think of all these millions of people who've died, and nobody's come back. Have they? No. No. Do you find it easy to forgive yourself as a person for the things that maybe you think you could have done better? Yeah, because you have to move forward. Otherwise, you'd be, you'd get stuck. And I'm also, you know, to the annoyance of people, I know that.

If your, your nature is glass, three-quarters full, then you try and find delight and joy in things. And if people don't have that, they just think you're an overbearing, annoying. You know, get more miserable, you fuck. You know what I mean? Yeah. So, but that, you know, it's back to the DNA thing. I think that that is your character. I agree.

And I think people make this common mistake as well of thinking nothing's bad. Nothing bad could have happened to you if you're an optimistic person, which is completely wrong. Oh, yeah. Because quite often it's like the opposite in my experience. It's like, optimists are like, well, if I didn't become this, I probably would have died. Yeah. I've met people that have genuinely had stable. I won't say happy, but very stable

upbringings and they're miserable as always winging. Yeah. You think, well, I'm alive because my dad tried to shoot me and I'm here. Yeah, exactly. Do you have one like little like wingy thing that you could just say like a little grite, one thing that just really annoys you?

I find the traffic in London a challenge on a daily basis. So I use my old age bus pass and two pass. The freedom. The freedom passed to go on that as much as possible because sitting in traffic is a challenge. I'm with you on that. Are you? Yeah.

So, so sorry about that. Okay, Richard. So there's a lot to be glad about. And you are known as the kindest, most joyful, happiest man in Hollywood. Oh, good. A lot to live up to. So I've got my friend here misleading who's going to pull some cars. of taro for you and see what we've got to look forward to.

All right. Let's see. Have you had one of these before? No. A skeptic. No, no, no. No, you're quite open to these kind of things. I think it's, I always guess star signs as well, and I surprisingly guess Paloma's correct.

Yeah, what do you think, Riches is? I can't quite read you very well. But if I had to, I think you're one of two. I think you're either a Capricorn. on are a torus, but I'm leaning more towards Taurus. Wrong or right? Taurus.

Oh! I'm a witch. Perhaps also very good at Googling. Well, yeah, that too. We've got the six of ones, we've got the five of ones, and we've also got the six of swords here. I think as of recent, probably within the last six months or so, or year or so, you have found new depths within your, like,

emotional awareness that like is helping you kind of like progress things in like creative things that you're about to do. I feel like next year you're going to be able to like use this like it's not emotional intelligence because you've always had that. It's more like your emotion, you're willing to trust your emotions more I think and like use that to put it into work. And I think with this that with the Six of Swords here is like measured in maybe how you are going to communicate some things or. I think it really is linked to how you feel.

There's like a real sense of feeling that's going to like allow you to kind of like be better. So in other words, I've just, I'm on an improvement. Yeah, but it doesn't feel like it's not like an improvement as in like you're becoming a, I mean, we always do kind of grow and improve, but it's like really directly linked to you being more aware of how you put things out into the world. And I think there's a real sense of like you're going to use like, I think you've always maybe led with your head. And maybe now you're going to start leading a little more with your heart.

And that's going to also shift a little bit in how you work and how you like what you put into your skill and creative. So is Stephen Spielberg going to give me a lifelong contract? Yes, you're going to be the new E. He's the new E.T. Oh, yeah. That's what I want. Okay. I'd like a little bit in that as well, Stephen, if possible.

just to walk on. The hustle goes on. Richard. Paloma. You fill me with joy. Every time I see you, it's... Ditto. She was just wonderful.

And if anybody would ever criticize you for being who you are, I really hope that, like Helena Baudham Carter said to me, I'm so happy if they compare me to you. Like, she came up to me, she said, every time they put me in the, what the hell was, She wearing pages next to you. I think my work is done. It's great because that's who I'd rather dress like.

And I feel the same about you. So thank you for teaching us how to live. And can you get me, please, thank you. Can you get me into White Lotus Season 4 with Helena, please? She was announced yesterday as being in it. I also would like a part in that. Yes. Available.

We're both here. I think after Traitors, you have a chance. Thank you so much for coming Richard. The horse and carriage waits you outside. It should take you six days to get home. Thank you. So nice to see you. Thank you.

Bye. Bye. And legend, I love him. Well, wasn't that great? All of the links of everything we mentioned in the show can be found in the episode description. Oh, and while you're there, why not subscribe and follow the show too? See you all next time.

Later's potatoes.