Warning! This article contains spoilers for Glass Onion.Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery features a number of celebrity cameos, including one famous actor playing Benoit Blanc's boyfriend. A recent trend in Hollywood has been to fill big movies with already stacked casts with a bunch of celebrity cameos. From David Leitch films like Deadpool 2, Fast & Furious Presents: Hobbs & Shaw, and Bullet Train to Rian Johnson's Knives Out sequel, the recent trend of celebrity cameos provides that extra bit of fun with each project.
The best cameo in Glass Onion is that of iconic actor Hugh Grant. In the first act of the movie, Edward Norton's Miles Bron sends out invitations to his private island, and Detective Benoit Blanc (Daniel Craig) receives one while in the bathtub. The person who answers the door to the deliverer is later revealed to be Hugh Grant in the role of Phillip, Blanc's boyfriend. The other Glass Onion cameos are great, but Grant's appearance provides the potential to be a recurring Knives Out role.
How Glass Onion (& Rian Johnson) Confirms Benoit Blanc Is Gay
Glass Onion doesn't provide overt confirmation of Benoit Blanc's sexual orientation. The only hints come in the fact that Blanc and Phillip live together, which could also just be that the two are simply roommates. However, Rian Johnson's comments from before Glass Onion's release confirm that Phillip and Blanc are romantic partners.
When Glass Onion screened at the London Film Festival in September 2022, Johnson was asked if Blanc was gay and if he and Phillip are romantically involved. The filmmaker replied, "Yes, he obviously is. And there's nobody in the world I can imagine in bringing me more joy for Benoit Blanc to be with" (via one of Glass Onion's celebrity references and jokes.
Why Hugh Grant Is Such Great Casting For Benoit Blanc's Boyfriend
Hugh Grant playing Benoit Blanc's boyfriend in Glass Onion is obviously something that made Rian Johnson very happy, and that should extend to audiences who see the movie. The casting is mainly perfect because of the duality between Blanc's character and Grant's typical roles from his early days. Grant began as the typical British heartthrob, who used his somewhat awkward, bumbling personality to win over his romantic counterparts.
With Blanc being such an eccentric, hokey character and Daniel Craig playing the role to perfection, the dynamic between the two would be perfect should Grant play a similar type of role in the Knives Out franchise. Imagining Grant's awkward charm mixing with Blanc's eccentric, flamboyant but well-natured detective is amazing. With Knives Out 3 currently in development, Grant should return as Phillip in order that the two characters can play off each other in a way Glass Onion did not allow for.
Benoit Blanc's Boyfriend, Phillip, Needs A Bigger Role In Knives Out 3
Should Knives Out 3 include Hugh Grant's Phillip, it could fix an issue that the Glass Onion cameo presents. One of the bigger criticisms of Hollywood has been a lack of overt LGBTQ+ representation, as most roles attributed to the community consist of side characters with little-to-no impact on the overall movie, or they fit damaging stereotypes. While Glass Onion avoids the latter, Phillip only exists in a minor cameo role where the nature of his and Blanc's relationship is not explicitly clear. It was left to the filmmaker to confirm this, with the movie failing to disclose it on its own.
If Phillip played a bigger role in Knives Out 3 — which would hopefully also get a theatrical release due to Glass Onion's box office success — the movie could be much more open in its depiction of their relationship and greater utilize its portrayal of an underrepresented community. Not only this, but Phillip playing a more significant role could give much more depth to Craig's Blanc, whose personal life has been mostly shrouded in mystery. This, combined with the immense humor that could be wrought from the couple being central to a murder mystery, with Craig's already fantastic performance and Grant's talents, could capitalize on Glass Onion: A Knives Out Mystery's best cameo for the sequel.
