British actor Hugh Grant forced a crew member to smuggle him alcohol on to the set of new movie Music And Lyrics, so he could loosen up enough to dance on camera.

The 46-year-old claims he has no rhythm and froze on the spot when he first stepped onset for dancing scenes.

Grant - who plays a 80s pop star in the film - says, "Dancing has to come from some primeval life force inside you, and it turns out I don't have one. The choreographer would put the music on and say, 'Just go, just be you'. And literally nothing would happen. I'd just stand there, rooted to the spot.

"But put me in my underpants by myself in front of a mirror and I do quite like to dance. Just the sight of myself. I'm so sexy. But put me in front of a large film crew and a lot of extras at seven in the morning with a Gbp140 million budget resting on my shoulders and it's not so easy.

"In the end I just thought, 'Well, the only time I've ever danced in my life is when I'm really out of my head late at night at a party', so I made the make-up girl bring me whisky in a 7-up bottle - and then I started to move just a tiny bit."