By Award luncheons are tiring. The machine gun fire of endless photographs, the plates of salmon terrine and the collective muscle strain of having to smile while being asked, yet again, what it's like working with Steven Spielberg.
We are so accustomed to this wearied approach to the most exclusive events in the world, seeing someone who's been granted passage behind the velvet rope actually enjoying it is like seeing your teacher in the pub, or a dog walk on their back legs. Strangely human.
Sadly, there is no award for most enthusiastic participation in the spectacle of Hollywood awards season, but if there was Richard E. Grant would undoubtedly be the front-runner. The actor is currently celebrating lashings of praise for his fantastic performance in Can You Ever Forgive Me?, the story of writer turned literary forger Lee Israel, in which he plays her debauched partner in crime Jack Hock.
Having made his film debut 31 years ago in Withnail & I, Grant is not exactly a newcomer to the business called show. He's since appeared in productions of Bram Stoker's Dracula, Lena Dunham's millennial-angst drama Girls, and blockbusters like Marvel's Logan. However - 1997 classic Spiceworld aside - Grant never quite found a role that lived up to the sozzled splendour of Withnail.
Now, with a string of award recognition - including wins at the New York Film Circle and Satellite Aware ceremonies and nominations for a Golden Globe and Oscar - Grant is newly A-list despite three decades in the business. It's a funny paradox, which led former co-star Steve Martin to tell him: "Congratulations on your overnight success!".
It's a success that Grant is absolutely not taking in his stride. With each nominee announcement or black tie ceremony, he's running around like an unabashed Golden Ticket winner. Pure excitement, in place of furrowed brows and carefully prepared "I haven't prepared anything" speeches. A man who brilliantly describes his current lot in life as like "walking out of your door and being jumped on by a whole load of puppies".
A 6 ft 2 jack-in-the-box of enthusiasm, who thanked security for not arresting him while taking a photograph of Barbra Streisand's house - then shared a dewy-eyed photograph of his face when hearing the singer's belated response to some decades-old fan mail he sent her.
A man happy to go along for the ride, who shared a photograph of himself driving toward the "Big Apple" like a cheerful tourist, then another on the plane to LA with his film playing on his neighbour's screen, saying how it was "Surreal to catch sight of ‘myself’".
'Surreal' is a word you associate more with competition winners or X Factor finalists who parachute into overnight stardom. In Hollywood, after years of dreaming of making it to the room where Bradley Cooper and Lady Gaga flank you, you're supposed to pretend as though you aren't bothered by it. To introduce yourself to Tom Hanks, and not laugh when in response Tom Hanks says, "Hi, I'm Tom".
Instead of being cautious and cool in the face of celebrity, Grant spent the Oscar luncheon yesterday cavorting around the room sharing a vast thread of celebrity selfies, like Pokémon he'd caught in the wild. There's Amy Adams and Glenn Close. There's Spike Lee - or at least I think it's Spike Lee, you can't quite tell because, as Grant noted, "You’ll understand why I am blurred and enduring ‘Smiling-rictus’ syndrome after meeting all these folk at the Academy Awards Nominees lunch today!!!"
"I'm one of those actors, like the majority, 99.9% of actors, who don't get nominated or awarded things," he told the Associated Press at the luncheon yesterday. "It's all unbelievable."
In Hollywood, as in life, enthusiasm is underrated.
