Baranski and Grant Team Up for First Time in Hay Fever

Christine Baranski and Richard E Grant are working together for the first time in their careers, in Noël Coward's comedy Hay Fever at Wyndham's Theatre.

The pairing comes late in two long screen and stage résumés. In a joint interview with the Guardian, published 28 September, the actors traded recollections backstage that ranged from skinny-dipping to fat-shaming and warring co-stars.

Grant opened the conversation by noting the oddness of their belated meeting. "Despite our vast combined vintage, our paths have never crossed before, have they?" he said.

Baranski confirmed they had not. "Regrettably not," she replied. "We could have had some good fun a few decades ago. A girl could have got into some real trouble. But here we are, and now we're the veterans."

She then paid tribute to her new co-star's record. "You're among the great character actors, popping up delightfully in so many things and always being spot-on," Baranski told Grant.

The interview, headlined "'We could have had good fun a few decades ago': Christine Baranski and Richard E Grant on sex scenes, parties and theatre," signals a frank exchange between two performers known for sharp comic timing — Baranski through decades of American stage and television work, Grant through a film career built on precisely the kind of scene-stealing supporting turns she praises.

Coward's Hay Fever, first staged in 1925, gives the pair a fitting vehicle: a comedy of bad manners centred on the theatrical Bliss family, whose weekend guests endure the household's escalating chaos. The play has long served as a showcase for seasoned comic actors, and the casting of Baranski and Grant places them squarely within that tradition.

The Guardian's teaser promises the full interview covers sex scenes, parties and backstage conflict — territory both actors have ample material on, if the glimpses already published are any indication. The anecdotes of skinny-dipping and fractious companies suggest neither performer has much interest in discreet retirement.

For audiences, the production at Wyndham's Theatre offers a rare thing: two career character actors, finally sharing a stage after decades of parallel work. As Baranski put it, they are now "the veterans" — and by her account, they would have caused considerably more trouble had they met sooner.