Hugh Grant opens up about his surprising cameo as Benoit Blanc's husband in Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, revealing what convinced him to Rian Johnson's Netflix whodunit sequel. Grant starred alongside Daniel Craig, Janelle Monáe, Edward Norton, Dave Bautista, Leslie Odom Jr., Kathryn Hahn, Jessica Henwick, Madelyn Cline, and Kate Hudson in the sequel to 2019's Knives Out. In Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery, Benoit Blanc is invited to Norton's tech billionaire Miles Bron and his wealthy inner circle on his private island in Greece, when a game focused on his pretend murder turns deadly as past conflicts come to light.
During an interview with cameo as Benoit Blanc's husband, Phillip, in scenes that depicted the couple at home in lockdown during the 2020 COVID-19 pandemic. While the actor's appearance was brief in Glass Onion, Grant revealed that he decided to the production due to his enjoyment of the original film. Check out Grant's full response below:
"It's the tiniest little moment. I don't really know why they wanted to do it but anyway, I thought Knives Out 1 was brilliant, and so yeah, I thought why not? I turn up for a few hours..."
How Glass Onion's Cameos and References Help Build Up The World Of Knives Out
Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery isn't short of recognizable cameos, be they appearances by Johnson's frequent collaborators Noah Segan and Joseph Gordon-Levitt, or famous faces appearing as friends of Blanc's. In the detective's first scene, Blanc can be seen playing Among Us with Natasha Lyonne, Kareem Abdul-Jabbar, Stephen Sondheim, and the late Angela Lansbury, who express their concerns for the detective during the isolation of lockdown after Phillip got in with them. While Knives Out established Blanc as a much-discussed and publicly renowned detective by various of the Thromby family, Glass Onion helped further establish his celebrity status by showing a number of famous faces he'd become acquainted with, emphasizing his status as a detective across the globe.
Blanc isn't the only member of Glass Onion's cast of characters who have brushed shoulders with real-world celebrities, however, as Norton's Miles Bron is frequently seen namedropping various real-world celebrities outside his inner circle, including actors Jared Leto and Jeremy Renner, singer Paul McCartney and composer Philip Glass. Alongside establishing Bron's own tech-billionaire status, references to Renner's personal brand of hot sauce and Leto's Kombucha being sent to Bron in hopes of receiving a promotion help establish Bron's true character beneath his friendlier facade. Like how Bron uses his status, wealth, and power through his relationships with his inner circle to benefit himself, his relationships with these real-world figures are seemingly more out of business opportunities or clout, rather than genuine friendship.
Between recognizable actors taking on surprising roles and no shortage of nods to recognizable celebrities and influencers, Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery builds upon the character of Benoit Blanc and helps firmly establish his place in the world. As such, the inclusion of Grant as Phillip helped shed a light on the life of a character who still remains much of a mystery himself, even after two appearances. And while Grant only appeared in a brief scene to answer a door, the actor's surprising cameo remains one of many memorable moments found in the next chapter of Johnson's world-renown sleuth's story.
Source: Collider
