Hugh Grant – multiple nominee and a Golden Globe winner is quick to say that he doesn’t love music like most people do, and he is funny about it: “Music makes me sad, so I can only really tolerate ABBA.”

But does music ever help him with his acting?, we asked Hugh, now at your local multiplex with Paddington II.

“I started that experiment in Florence Foster Jenkins. When I had to do a very sad scene, I listened to some very sad music and it sort of worked. In this TV project I just did (BBC’s A Very English Scandal, directed by Stephen Frears) my character, Jeremy Thorpe, was an enormously enthusiastic lover of classical music and very expert in it.  And so I tried to immerse myself in that, and I played a lot of classical music on my way to work and in my trailer.  It’s incredibly helpful. It does weird things to you which in real life I try to avoid. I don’t really like to be moved, I am too English.”

So this was your first real try? Had you ever tried this before?

“Not in the same way. I do have a playlist on my iPhone. I have got two, one is called “Pep” and the other is called “Naf Pep.” The Pep peps you up but a Naf Pep is Naf for the British word meaning you can’t possibly play it in front of any other person, especially if you are going to think about having sex with them because it’s ABBA or the Gipsy Kings and they just despise you.  So I can only play that in the privacy of my own bedroom when I am trying to get revved up to go out. “