‘This was the real Love Actually’: Hugh Grant surprises 500 elderly residents by serving Christmas dinner

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Actor Hugh Grant surprised 500 elderly residents in London by serving up Christmas lunch.

The Love Actually star, 63, spread some festive joy as he helped out at the Big H&F Christmas Day Lunch, which provides Christmas dinner to older residents in Hammersmith and Fulham who would otherwise be celebrating alone.

Grant was seen serving food and speaking to locals at the event which was held at the Novotel hotel in Hammersmith.

“Thanks to everyone who joined us at the annual Big H&F Christmas Day Lunch - including a very special guest, Hugh Grant,” a Hammersmith and Fulham Council spokesperson said.

"Hugh helped us serve lunch to 500 local older people who otherwise would have celebrated alone. This was the real Love Actually," they added.

Speaking highly of Grant and his presence at the event, Councillor Ben Coleman, said on X: “Massive thanks to Hugh Grant for his surprise appearance serving guests at our Big H&F Christmas Day Lunch. We were all delighted to see him. He made an already fun occasion even more special.”

Around £40,000 was raised through donations from local businesses and crowdfunding to make the event happen, according to the Evening Standard.

Elderly residents at the event were given a two-course meal which also included entertainment from a live band. They also received mince pies and a goodie bag, while free transport was put on for those who needed it.

Grant is known for his role in Four Weddings and a Funeral, Notting Hill and Love Actually. This year, he starred in the action-adventure film Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves and as an Oompa-Loompa alongside Timotheé Chalamet’s Willy Wonka in Wonka.

“I got a little less bad after I had children, got married, got happier," he recently told Drew Barrymore during an appearance on The Drew Barrymore Show. "I got too old and fat and ugly to do romantic comedies obviously, so I got off with more interesting things."

Grant also revealed he “hated” the motion-capture process involved in bringing his Oompa-Loompa character to the screen.

At a recent press conference earlier this month, he told reporters he had multiple cameras directed at his face so that the movie’s animators could render his character Lofty’s appearance.

“It was like a crown of thorns,” said Grant, according to Metro, “very uncomfortable”. “I made a big fuss about it,” he added. “I couldn’t have hated the whole thing more.”