Rare health condition Richard E Grant has that means he won't drink on Celebrity Traitors
Richard E Grant has stolen all the headlines for his performance on the first episode of Celebrity Traitors, not only being selected as a Traitor but essentially announcing it to the entire castle.
Grant is perhaps the biggest celebrity in the castle in season two, having been nominated for an Oscar, led multiple cult classic dramas, and taken up roles in Doctor Who, Game of Thrones, Marvel, and Star Wars. He is not, however, seemingly, the greatest Traitor around.
Celebrity Traitors season two features Grant as a Traitor alongside Maya Jama and, at the time of writing, either James Acaster or Amol Rajan, though Acaster is much more likely due to show leaks.
Grant’s performance in the first episode has many thinking we won’t see him for very long on the show due to his proclamation that he is a Traitor, but many may be surprised to discover that you also will not see him drinking whatsoever on the show.
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This is due to a rare health condition which the actor has spoken about which means he has been sober most of his life, with one exception of a drunken night of research for a role he has spoken about.
Richard E Grant is ‘intolerant’ to alcohol and it makes him ‘violently ill’ so he has only ever drunk once
Grant is unable to drink alcohol due to him not possessing the enzymes required to break it down correctly.
This is called alcohol intolerance but, rather than simply getting drunk more easily as the term may cause you to think, is actually a relatively serious disorder.
Symptoms for this include vomiting, tachycardia, diarrhoea, fatigue, however Grant has spoken about the fact that for him he gets a ‘terrible’ rash, becomes sick, and feels ill for over 24 hours when he drinks.
Speaking on to the Irish Examiner in 2006 he revealed his intolerance, saying: “I have an allergy to drink. I get a terrible rash and get ill for about 24 hours. I went to a doctor when I was 19 and he said I had none of the enzyme in my blood that processes alcohol.
"He asked if I had Japanese blood. Or Inuit. Or Native American, because they have none of this enzyme. The French as a tribe have the most of it.
"It wasn't for lack of wanting to do it, it was just I am unable to, which is ironic because when I say I don't drink, people say: 'Oh, are you on the programme?'”
Grant spoke about his father being an abusive alcoholic who once fired a gun at him
The actor also had an abusive alcoholic father who once shot at him, threatening to ‘blow his brains out’, when he was 15 for pouring his alcohol down the drain.
On Desert Island Discs he said: “When I was 15 I naively thought that if I emptied all 12 bottles of Scotch down the sink that he would somehow stop drinking.
“I was on the 11th bottle and felt something very cold on the back of my head and it was a gun.”
He fired at him and missed after he ran into the garden, adding: “He missed because he was so drunk and then I ran away from home for a couple of weeks.
“But having said that, my memory of him is so much more than remembering that part of him, because I knew that was something that was entirely brought about by addiction, rather than the man that I absolutely worshipped and loved.”
He has essentially never drunk, except for in preparation for his most iconic role.
Richard E Grant got drunk before starring in Withnail and I when the director ‘poured a mixture of champagne and vodka down his throat’
Whilst Grant has appeared in almost every major franchise in the world he is still arguably best known for playing the titular character in Withnail and I.
He was playing an alcoholic and, according to Grant, the director Bruce Robinson wanted him to know what a hangover was like.
He told The Times: “I don’t drink. During the rehearsals for Withnail, the director insisted that I get paralytically drunk so I’d know what it was like. It was dreadful. I was so ill I vomited and passed out.”
The fact is a surprising one considering he played one of the most iconic alcoholics in film history, but this was the one and only time he has drunk in his life.
Now, despite the stress of the Celebrity Traitors castle meaning that a stiff drink would probably help, Grant won’t be partaking.
Topics: Celebrity, TV and Film, TV, The Traitors, Health
Michael Slavin