Hugh Grant is aware that he’s best known for playing the bumbling love interests in romantic comedies. Now he’s embracing his villain era.
“To be completely honest, I’ve gotten more comfortable over the last eight or nine years of almost exclusively playing deranged narcissistic monsters,” Grant told Yahoo Entertainment. “So I don’t know what that says about me.”
In Heretic, Grant, in theaters November 8, plays a scholar who is visited by two Mormon missionaries. As they share their message with him, his sinister intentions become increasingly clear.
To get into character, Grant researched cult leaders and mass murderers. He found them “fascinating” – especially those who “could create a following that was loyal to them after knowing they were mass murderers.”
Grant also drew some inspiration from his own community.
“A lot of the models that were in my head or on my mood board are actually people from my real life whose names I would rather not share because they could potentially be offensive,” he joked.
Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who wrote and directed the film, came up with the idea for the film after a bizarre real-life encounter. Early in their careers, they went door to door in Iowa – much like Mormon missionaries do – looking for a possible location for a film project.
Beck told Yahoo Entertainment that a “kind older couple” opened the door and welcomed them into their “warm, inviting space” with “beautiful furnishings and gorgeous wallpaper.” When Beck and Woods presented their film, things got strange.
“We told them it’s about the end times, about this asteroid traveling through space that will end all life on Earth,” Beck said. “And suddenly they start nodding empathetically. And they say, ‘Oh yeah, that’s going to happen in a few years.’
Beck said they were then offered tea, which they decided not to drink. They left the house as quickly as possible.
Something similar happens in Heretic – although, as is probably obvious since it’s a horror movie, that outing doesn’t go so smoothly.
Woods told Yahoo Entertainment Heretic differs from other religious horror films in that many of them “use religion as a kind of starting point to substantiate some kind of supernatural threat.”
“Heretic is almost the opposite,” Woods said. “It’s about every religion on planet Earth, and it’s less interested in the supernatural underpinnings of religious horror and more interested in debate and dialogue about why you believe what you believe and the fear of not knowing what happens when you die. ”
Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher, who play the two Mormon missionaries who visit Grant’s character, are both former Mormons in real life.
Thatcher told Yahoo Entertainment that she was impressed by the way the script shares so many points of view with sensitivity. She shared the script with her mother, who is still a practicing Mormon.
“As soon as I got her approval, I felt like I could do it,” Thatcher said.
East told Yahoo Entertainment that when she first read the film’s logline, she immediately worried that participating in the film might offend people she cares about because Mormons are so often ridiculed in popular culture. The Book of Mormon Unpleasant The Secret Lives of Mormon Women.
“[I thought] it’s probably just this one-sided view of Mormonism, and we understand that. It’s all over the media. Mormons are the butt of the joke and all the stereotypes,” East said. Reading the script and noticing how accurate its terminology was allayed her fears.
“It’s really a true representation of sister missionaries and what they do,” she added.
Beck and Woods started writing the script ten years ago. They were amazed by Grant’s character, Mr. Reed, who is fluent in many religions, and took the time to study scholars and learn about life before returning to the script.
“Scott and I have known each other since we were 11 years old and ever since [then] we imagined, believe it or not, that we would be doing some kind of religious horror study,” Woods said. “We saw the movie in seventh grade Contact by Robert Zemeckis, and that had a profound effect on us… because it felt like an adult conversation about religion in the context of a popcorn movie.”
That’s exactly what they hope Heretic is for their audience.
Heretic is in cinemas from November 8.
