Glass Onion’s Rian Johnson Confirms Details About Hugh Grant as Benoit Blanc’s Boyfriend

There’s a whole lot to enjoy about Rian Johnson’s Glass Onion, the latest Benoit Blanc mystery movie starring Daniel Craig. The Knives Out sequel has a whole new star-studded cast and even features some exciting cameos. One big surprise was Hugh Grant as Blanc’s boyfriend, Philip. In a recent interview with Empire‘s Spoiler Special podcast (via Collider), Johnson talked about Grant’s cameo and further detailed Philip and Benoit’s relationship. 

“They’re a couple. His name is Phillip. I just basically thought who would it give me the most joy for Benoit Blanc to be with, and I thought Hugh Grant,” Johnson explained. “He was such a joy to be with, he came to set for one day, did that one disconnected scene, and trusted us to put it in the movie. I also love that he’s home baking, trying to make sourdough bread. I don’t know if I see him as the Watson to Blanc’s Sherlock, but it’s good to have separate things, plus that apartment is so nice, I can’t imagine Blanc can afford it so I think he has a real job.”

Wil Hugh Grant Return in Knives Out 3?

Craig has said he doesn’t want Johnson’s films to explore too much of Blanc’s personal life, however, we might be seeing Grant again in the future. According to Netflix, Johnson would feel “lucky” to get Grant back in an upcoming Blanc mystery. 

“I will say this, first of all, I should only be so lucky to get that actor back in a murder mystery,” Johnson shared. “So we’ll see. But I also feel like, if that happens, it would be way down the line because I feel like it’s important to set the guardrails. And the guardrails for me are that each one of these is about the mystery. It’s not about the detective.” Johnson added of Blanc, “It’s not about diving into who he is or where he comes from. He can’t be the protagonist of it … It has to be centered around the mystery. And the detective is only interesting in terms of the role that he plays and the story that we’re telling.” Johnson continued with a smile, “Look, I don’t know, man, I’m also a liar … And if something makes me laugh, I’ll inevitably do it at some point. So we’ll see.”

When speaking with ComicBook.com, Craig explained why the Knives Out films shouldn’t focus too much on Blanc’s personal life. 

“We don’t really kind of want there to be a lot of it,” Craig explained. “That’s what we want. I mean, I think in the sense that the more of an enigma he can remain, the better it is for the storytelling. It’s less about him, it’s about the suspects. It’s about the protagonist in the story and about how he hopefully figures out the case. And, you know, we see in this movie one technique. We saw in the last movie, a technique, and [Rian Johnson]’s gonna have to think of another technique. I think that his backstory, I’m not personally interested in what happened to Benoit Blanc when he was 10, but you know, I’m sure somebody can make it up and I’ll just go, ‘Yep, that’s it.’” 

Glass Onion is now streaming on Netflix.