Heretic director says he has ‘never seen anything as in-depth as’ Hugh Grant’s process

Romcom veteran Hugh Grant has been receiving rave reviews for his role as a creepy theologist in the new horror film Heretic – and according to one of the movie’s directors, he “dived deep” into the part.

Grant stars in the movie as Mr Reed, a man who invites two young Mormon missionaries – played by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East – into his home after they knock on his door. Their attempts to convert him turn out to be far more dangerous than they could have predicted, with Grant giving a performance that has been described as “genuinely chilling”.

In a new interview with GQ, directors Bryan Woods and Scott Beck were asked about some of the criticisms online about Grant resorting to the tics he used in his bumbling romcom performances in films such as Notting Hill, like stammering, and giving a “big toothy grin”.

Defending Grant, Woods said: “Hugh is a character actor through-and-through, so he’s diving deep into Mr Reed – he’s shedding his skin, he’s not thinking about himself on those levels.”

While he admitted that he and Beck might have been thinking about the classic Grant traits, joking that they “weaponised” them in the new film, he said that Grant actually thought about the horror role very deeply.

“I’ve never seen anything as in-depth as Hugh’s process,” he said. “We spent four months in pre-production emailing each other essays back and forth. He would write, like, ‘Does Reed come from this part of the world?’ and, ‘Does he think this?’ and we’d answer back… when I say that out loud, it almost sounds obnoxious, but it was actually a lot of fun.

“So when it comes to the way he weaponises certain tics that we’re familiar with, my intuition would be that he’s not even thinking about that. Every single take with him is slightly different, and that’s because he’s so present, and he just is the character at that point.”

In a four-star review of Heretic, out in cinemas now, Clarisse Loughrey wrote: “The genius of Hugh Grant’s big horror turn in Heretic is that, really, he’s the same Hugh Grant as before. He still rushes headfirst into his sentences, only to end them with a sheepish smile.

“He still parcels out morsels of sincerity with a shrug and a chuckle, bashful at any admission of vulnerability. In short, he’s irresistibly charismatic.”