The screenwriter said the team interviewed around 70 people for the role, but found it difficult to find someone with the 'charm and wit' needed to make the part work.
'Hugh had it instantly. He gives the impression of being feckless and that he can't act, but he worked so hard on every line,' he said.
Earlier this month Hugh presented Richard with a Governors Award.
Whilst presenting, he said: ‘You would think, given that most of his films were about love, that he would have been or had a directorial style of gentle, soft, and fluffy.
‘You would have been quite wrong.
‘Forever etched on my heart are some of the notes he gave me including, "And now do do a funny one," and "Don't worry, we can cut around you".
‘The producer liked me and wanted me, and the money people wanted me.
‘The only person who didn't want me and, in fact, took such an instant and violent dislike for me that he did everything in his power to stop me getting the part was the writer.
But speaking to the Radio Times , Curtis, 68, said he didn’t ever want to work with Hugh Grant, 64, because he was ‘too posh and handsome’
'It is this ar****** who we are honoured to honour tonight.’
Richard is now launching his latest film That Christmas, a family Netflix cartoon which stars Brian Cox, Bill Nighy and Jodie Whittaker.
He said it’s been great to work on something different.
At the age of 32, Hugh had claimed to be on the brink of quitting the acting profession, but was pleased by the script of Four Weddings after finding the protagonist funny.
Duncan Kenworthy, whose first time producing a film happened with Four Weddings, recalled how Hugh brought in a recording of his best man speech at his brother's wedding, which was 'quite funny'.
He added that the team wrote 'wedding attire' on the UK premiere invitation, with roughly 10 per cent coming in wedding dresses.
The producer recalled why Liz Hurley's bold choice of outfit became such an important part of the film's success.
'And then, of course, there was Liz Hurley's dress, which was not a wedding dress - almost not a dress at all. That worked so well for us too because she was on the front page of newspapers for a week,' he said.
Liz's famous dress - which features large golden safety pins and a slit down the side - remains iconic to this day.
