Ashley Graham “tried her hardest” during her awkward interview with Hugh Grant at the 2023 Oscars.

In March this year, the Notting Hill actor was labelled “rude” by social media users after his red-carpet interview with the model went viral because of his short, awkward answers.

Reflecting on the uncomfortable exchange in an interview with The Sunday Times, Ashley admitted Hugh was “very pleasant” before the cameras started rolling.

“I could tell he didn’t want to be there, that was obvious,” she shared. “Before, we were chatting, he was very pleasant. Then we started rolling and he was like, ‘I don’t want to be here’, and I was, ‘OK, work with me! I get it! But like, work with me?’ I was trying my hardest to be my nice, upbeat self and he gave me what he had… It’s crazy how viral it went.”

During the interview, Ashley asked Hugh who he wanted to win Oscars and he replied, “No one in particular.” When she asked who designed his suit, he responded, “I can’t remember, my tailor.”

At one point during the curt conversation, the 35-year-old mistook his reference to William Makepeace Thackeray’s classic novel Vanity Fair with Vanity Fair magazine’s post-Oscars party.

Ashley added to the Times, “I didn’t get the Vanity Fair comment. My public school system didn’t have that book, probably.”

When the interviewer joked that every British family had a “grumpy Hugh”, she replied, “I wish I would’ve known that. I just remembered him from Love Actually where he was charming!”

– Cover Media