Richard E Grant calls out ‘household name’ stars who treated his daughter ‘appallingly’ on set

Veteran actor Richard E Grant has called out ‘household name’ stars who reportedly treated his daughter, Olivia, ‘appallingly’ on set.

The former Drag Race UK guest judge and Saltburn star Richard E Grant has revealed that while working as a runner – an assistant on TV and film sets – his daughter, Olivia, was not treated well by multiple “very well known household names.”

Speaking to Sky News in a recent interview, Grant was asked what the most under appreciated role on a movie set was, to which he responded, “The runners, who are paid the least amount of money. They’re the youngest. They get there at five in the morning, they’re the last to leave, and if anything goes wrong, they get flung from a dizzy height.”

Continuing, he added, “I know because my daughter was a runner for two years. And was appallingly treated by some very well known household names, in England.”

While Grant declined to name the figures in question, he added that they “changed their tune” upon “[finding out] who her father was.”

“[That] made it worse,” he said. “It made me damn those people even more.” He added that he will “never speak to [them] again.”

Grant’s daughter, Olivia, now works as a casting director, having worked on Masters of the Air (2024) and What’s Love Got to Do with It? (2022).

Grant married voice coach Joan Washington in 1986, with whom he had Olivia, and who sadly passed away in 2021 after being diagnosed with lung cancer.

He previously opened up about grief while speaking to The Independent in 2023.

““I don’t talk out loud [to my late wife], but after 38 years together I know I can anticipate or predict what her response to whatever’s happening in my day would be,” he said.

“So I have a silent conversation with her, especially at the steering wheel at the end of a day, or at the end of a show… cross-reference what she would be thinking.”