Hugh Grant Calls Himself a 'Bad Actor' Who 'Squandered His Life'

Got to love those Brits. Even as he's meeting with Prime Minister David Cameron about the News of the World scandal, phone hackee Hugh Grant is as charmingly self-deprecating as always. Asked by the Guardian if he's wasted his life by just now turning political at the age of 51, the actor joked, "You are right. I have squandered my life." He added that instead of advocating for press accountability, "I wish I picked a cause that had more natural public sympathy, something to do with animals perhaps, or assisted dying." Grant, who memorably played a booty-shaking PM in 'Love Actually,' had a high-profile meeting with Cameron last night to discuss the scandal. After the sitdown, Grant said that Cameron made "the right noises but I expected him to make the right noises." He revealed to The Times of London that he had warned UK Chancellor George Osborne ahead of time that it would be a "catastrophic mistake" to hire controversial editor Andy Coulson and had even caused such a stir about it at a dinner party, he had to be calmed down. The star critiqued Rupert Murdoch's hazy testimony about the hacking scandal in July as "phony." As he explained, "Speaking as a bad actor, it was easy to spot a bad performance ... my sources tell me he was as a sharp as a tack when they saw him a week or two before." The "bad actor" recently joined the cast of 'Cloud Atlas' with co-stars Tom Hanks and Halle Berry and the Wachowski Brothers and Tom Tykwer directing. [via The Guardian, Deadline] [Photo: Getty Images] Follow Moviefone on Twitter Like Moviefone on Facebook