It was only a few months ago that moviegoers got to see Hugh Grant play an Oompa Loompa in Wonka, a movie he “hated” filming. But one man’s poor work experience is another person’s cinematic entertainment, and soon Max subscribers will be able to stream Grant acting opposite Timothée Chalamet’s Willy Wonka to their heart’s content. Even better, we’re not done seeing Grant play roles outside of his usual wheelhouse; he’s set to play a cereal mascot in Jerry Seinfeld’s movie about Pop Tarts, and I need to see his scene ASAP.
Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story delves into Kellog’s and Post Cereal competing in 1963 to create a pastry that, as described in the official synopsis, “will change the face of breakfast forever.” The end result is the former company delivering Pop-Tarts to the world by 1964, and while we already knew that Grant was part of the Unfrosted cast, we now know from Empire that he’s set to play Tony the Tiger in the movie heading to Netflix subscribers later this year. Or rather, he’ll play someone who has to don a Tony the Tiger costume, as seen below:
Wow, that looks grrrreeat… you all know I had to do it. Yes, at some point during Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, we’ll see Hugh Grant portraying a man who has to put on the Tony the Tiger costume for a commercial. At this point in time, Frosted Flakes has been on the market since 1952 and Tony has been its mascot since the beginning, so he was quite the familiar face to people watching TV in the early 1960s. It’s wonderful to see Grant in that costume, but now I really want to see how this scene specifically unfolds and if his character is just as much of curmudgeon.
Jerry Seinfeld, who stars in, directed and co-wrote Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story, said he brought Hugh Grant aboard because he’s a “crazy fans of his.” For the first time in 30 years, Grant sent in an audition tape to give a taste of what he’d do with his screen time, and Seinfeld recalled the later exchange he and the actor had:
[Hugh] asked me if it matters that Tony the Tiger has a British accent. I told him, ‘No, who cares?’
A British Tony the Tiger?! Is this a late Christmas present?! The good news is that Unfrosted comes out in a couple months, so we don’t have to wait too long to see this glorious moment. But if that’s not enough to entice you to check out Unfrosted, some of the other actors in this ensemble cast include Melissa McCarthy, Jim Gaffigan, Amy Schumer, James Marsden, Jack McBrayer, Bill Burr, Maria Baklava and Max Greenfield, among many others. In addition to this being Seinfeld’s directorial debut, it’s also his first time leading a movie since 2007’s Bee Movie, which he also co-wrote and produced.
Unfrosted: The Pop-Tart Story comes out on May 3, but for those of you in the mood to check out some of Hugh Grant’s recent work right now, along with Wonka’s forthcoming Max arrival, Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves can be streamed with a Paramount+ subscription, and Operation Fortune: Ruse de Guerre can be accessed with a Starz add-on to your Hulu subscription.
