Saltburn star Richard E. Grant has revealed that he was held at gunpoint by his father when he was just a teenager.
The Withnail & I star, 67, appeared on Davina McCall’s podcast Begin Again to discuss his life.
While reflecting on his difficult childhood, the actor explained that his father was an alcoholic and tried to shoot him – but the trigger faltered.
‘He tried to shoot me when I was 15 when I emptied all his Scotch supply down the sink,’ the actor told Davina.
He went on to explain the full story to the host: ‘As I was halfway through [pouring] the eleventh bottle, gun at the back of my head, I ducked, went off, ran to the garden. He finally found me, said “I’m going to blow your brains out.”
‘I said: “Go on, do it, just get this over and done with.”‘
He revealed he father pulled the trigger but missed: ‘Because he was drunk it wavered so it went straight past and I fell to the ground and ran away.’
He explained that he struggled as a child after his parents split, as he was at the mercy of his father’s addiction.
‘Even though he became an alcoholic after my mother left, the person who I knew and loved by day outweighed the monster that he turned into when he downed a bottle of Johnnie Walker.
‘At nine o’clock at night, he’d have this personality switch and he’d become unrecognisable.’
In the interview, he also spoke about the horrifying way that he discovered his mother was having an affair.
‘My mother and my father’s best friend were in the front seat of the car and stopped on the way back from a cricket match. And I was asleep on the back seat and I woke up and the lights weren’t on and I knew I wasn’t home. But there was a rhythmic movement in the car that wasn’t the car engine. I gingerly looked over the front seat and my mum and my dad’s best friend were having it off in the front seat.
‘I knew that I was seeing something that I shouldn’t – I didn’t really understand what they were doing,’ he said.
‘I just kept completely quiet and pretended to be asleep.’
Despite sharing such horrifying stories, the actor spoke about remaining positive and finding joy in life.
Last year he marked the 42nd anniversary of moving from Africa to the UK.
‘42 years ago today, I emigrated from Swaziland to England with 1 suitcase, box of cassettes, Sony Walkman, a head full of dreams & a 5 year plan to try & make it by 30!
‘Worked as a waiter in Covent Garden for 6 months, rented a bedsit in Notting Hill for £30 a week & started getting small acting roles.
‘Like Dick Whittington, I found my fortune in London. 🎶SWEET DREAMS ARE MADE OF THIS🎶 truly came true!’
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