Which actor played the lead in "Notting Hill"?

In “Notting Hill,” Hugh Grant plays the lead character, William “Will” Thacker.

Released in 1999, the romantic comedy follows Will, a London travel-bookshop owner whose life changes when Anna Scott, a famous American actress played by Julia Roberts, enters his shop. Their relationship drives the film’s central contrast between ordinary life and international celebrity.

Hugh Grant was a natural fit for the role because screenwriter Richard Curtis had previously written characters that suited Grant’s understated, awkwardly charming style. Curtis and Grant had also worked together on “Four Weddings and a Funeral,” another major British romantic comedy.

A common mix-up is confusing Grant with Colin Firth, another British actor strongly associated with romantic comedies. Firth did not appear in “Notting Hill”; he starred in films such as “Bridget Jones’s Diary” and “Love Actually.” The film was directed by Roger Michell and became one of the defining romantic comedies of the late 1990s.