Hugh Grant went to a public school (private school) but not a particulalrly posh one and he did it on a scholarship. He did go to Oxford, which means he was (is) clever. I have never detected anything sinister about him, though he can easily do sly bastard, see the amateur thespians film from the Beryl Bainbridge novel (the title is from Peter Pan but I can't remember it) that he's in with Alan Rickman, a long time before Bridget Jones. I think he plays up the vague upper-class Brit because he can and because that's what the public wants.
Now Cary is sinister, I agree. But Archie Leach was not posh at all, his mother was locked up in a lunatic asylum and he was actually expelled from his state grammar school. What for? Could have been you-know-what. if you think about his shacking up with Randolph Scott. That's considered rather English, isn't it?
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