Why the Bridget Jones star is still the thinking woman's sex symbol…

'I'm not deep,' bluntly declares the deceptively humble Hugh Grant. 'I've always been drawn to shallow.' The candid comment betrays the true nature of the man, whose wry sensibility is in direct contrast to most of the characters he has played on screen - Grant is actually rather stern, edgy and intense.

Indeed, the fact that Grant has made his career ostensibly reinventing the role he played in 1990's Four Weddings and a Funeral dismays the Oxford-educated actor, though he doesn't speak easily about it. After all, he has made dozens of films, many of which were not romantic comedies (including Small Time Crooks, Extreme Measures, Restoration, and An Awfully Big Adventure).

'[Being typecast] may be partly my fault,' he says somewhat squeamishly of his most successful parts (in Four Weddings, Nine Months, Bridget Jones's Diary and Notting Hill). 'Because I've always chosen jobs more on the basis of, is it well written and entertaining rather than is it interesting and stretching for me as an actor? And that has meant that I probably have repeated myself too often.'

Nonetheless, Grant's female fans can't get enough of his lumbering Lotharios and the actor has for some time now been compared to one of Hollywood's most remarkable romantic talents, Cary Grant. Despite his contagious charisma, Hugh Grant is known to be an intense presence on a movie set, an actor who works painstakingly at his craft.

'When you see his work, it seems very casual and off the cuff,' says Paul Weitz, who with his brother Chris directed the actor in About A Boy, which also starred Toni Colette and Rachel Weisz. 'But he does a great deal of work to make it seem that way.'

'He oozes charm,' adds actress Sandra Bullock of Hugh, with whom she stars in the upcoming love story Two Weeks Notice in New York. 'He's so smart and witty. But he has such a work ethic, that man. I am shocked every day. And he makes it look effortless.'

Grant too has praise for Bullock. He enthused: 'I feel like I've met the person I should have been doing films with for years - it's excellent.'

Such comments have sparked rumours of a romance between the two on set, claims that have been shrugged off by Grant. 'I've never worked with an actress where there haven't been rumours that we've been shagging,' he laughs.

Hitting home

Two Weeks Notice is yet another romantic love story for Grant. Bullock plays a brilliant but neurotic attorney, while Grant plays her wealthy, charming and irresponsible client. The film's premise explores the question of whether it is ever too late to say those three words - 'I love you'.

On the surface it is very different from Grant's last film, About A Boy. Based on the popular book by novelist Nick Hornby, which topped the UK bestsellers list, Grant played an older, wiser, more damaged and more reflective man than in his Bridget Jones days. His character was defined by his friendship with a 12-year-old boy rather than by his charming attentions to young women.

The film hit home in more ways than one. 'I know the life of being a London slacker extremely well,' says the 42-year-old star. 'I've spent huge swathes of my life watching afternoon television, saving up, going to the chemist as my treat for the day. I know all about that. And I'm also aware, because a lot of friends were like that, of what happens to those guys when they get to their late 30s. 'Cause, you know, the party is beginning to pale a bit.'

At times it appears the same can be said of Grant's attitude to his own career. 'I've been acting for nearly 20 years,' he says somewhat wearily. 'But Four Weddings came out eight years ago. And sometimes when I'm feeling particularly tired and grumpy and thinking I'm going to put a stop on this, I think maybe two more years - that's ten years of sort-of successful acting. But I change my mind every day, really.'

Which is good news for his adoring fans.