Cover of With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant

With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant

First comes Grant's first big break, the starring role in Bruce Robinson's Withnail and I,the cult film that set Grant's career on a path bound for stardom—"I had no notion that, almost without exception, every film offered since would be the result of playing an alcoholic-out-of-work actor." Like Dante's Virgil he guides the reader through the hell of the making of Hudson Hawk. He knows he's an insider when Carrie Fisher reminds him, "You're no longer a tourist, you're one of the attractions." This heady mixture of eating spaghetti with the Coppolas, window-shopping with Sharon Stone, and working with and learning from the best actors and directors in Tinseltown will be irresistible to anyone who loves movies or aspires to be a Hollywood player.

Audience
adult
Length
medium · 304 pages

Click a tag to see books like this one that share it. Point at it (on a phone, tap it) for less of it instead.

Read it? Sign in to help tag it.

Liked With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant? Here’s where I’d start.

These suit anyone who liked With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant. Sign in and mark a few books for picks shaped around your own taste.

  1. It's Only a Movie Shares film, nonfiction, biography
  2. Withnail and I: the Original Screenplay Shares film, humor, movies
  3. Fred Astaire Shares film, biography, nonfiction
  4. The Kenneth Williams Diaries Shares biography, nonfiction, memoir

“People who read With Nails: The Film Diaries of Richard E. Grant tend to reach for these next.”

  1. Different for Girls: A Girl's Own True-life Adventures in Pop
  2. Reasons To Be Cheerful
  3. Look Back in Hunger
  4. The Genius of the System: Hollywood Filmmaking in the Studio Era

“If you want more of the same (biography about movies), start with these.”

  1. My Life as Indiana Jones, James Bond, Superman and Other Action Heroes
  2. The Dark Side Of Genius: The Life Of Alfred Hitchcock
  3. Hitch: The Life and Times of Alfred Hitchcock
  4. Charles Laughton: A Difficult Actor

“If it was the film that hooked you, try one of these.”

  1. The Kid Stays in the Picture
  2. Little House in the Hollywood Hillls: A Bad Girl's Guide to Becoming Miss Beadle, Mary X, and Me
  3. Tough Without a Gun: The Life and Extraordinary Afterlife of Humphrey Bogart
  4. Spellbound by Beauty: Alfred Hitchcock and His Leading Ladies

“These start from a similar idea, even if they go somewhere else with it.”

  1. Hollywood: The Pioneers
  2. You're So Fine
  3. Tales From Development Hell: The Greatest Movies Never Made?
  4. Clint: A Retrospective