Hugh Grant is going full-blown baddie in A24’s upcoming horror flick, Heretic. True, the award-winning actor has played scoundrels in the past. Grant’s Daniel Cleaver certainly caused problems aplenty for Bridget Jones (Renée Zellweger) over the years. And who can forget Grant’s deliciously naughty performance as Fletcher in The Gentlemen? Well, there’s no gray area this time: Grant is ghastly! And the thespian draws on real life, particularly people he knows, as inspiration for his cringy character, Mr. Reed. Grant said in an interview with Entertainment Weekly:
“There have been people in my life who were useful to me, people who were very, very clever – brilliant, really, and in some ways very plausible and quite charming and quite bewitching, but who you gradually realize that there’s something deeply wrong with them. And these people very often really struggle to have any relationships in life, any meaningful friendships, and resort to things like pranks and slightly unfunny jokes and model-making and stuff like that.”
Grant, who won a Golden Globe (Best Performance by an Actor in a Motion Picture – Comedy or Musical) for his portrayal of Charles in the unforgettable Four Weddings and a Funeral, continued by saying in the same sit-down (below):
“Villains have usually got a facade, and this is a very good example of that facade being important to how the story is told. It would’ve been obviously all wrong if, from the moment I’d answered the door to Sophie [Thatcher] and Chloe [East], I’d been demonstrably psychotic and evil. A slow reveal is the key. And in this case, really as slow as possible.”
Hugh Grant Relishes Playing the Heretic
Hugh Grant is one of those rare actors who almost always delivers gut-wrenching and memorable performances. And even though Grant credits Cloud Atlas with reinvigorating his career, the 64-year-old never ceases to amaze. However, if Grant’s perfectly honest, despite the overwhelming number of heartthrobs he has pulled off on-screen over the years, being bad just feels so good. And he relishes being given the opportunity to play the creepy villain in Heretic. Grant also told EW (below):
“Every actor really prefers it [playing the heavy]. I think you’d be hard pushed to find an actor or actress who says, ‘I just like playing nice people.’ They’re tough and they’re always borderline boring. They’re very difficult, nice people or heroes. And there always seems to be more juice in an evil character. It’s a fascinating discussion about why that is and why audiences, from the beginning of time, have always latched onto the villains sometimes when they don’t really latch onto the good guy. So, it’s always tempting for an actor.”
Despite Grant making a bit of a departure to portray the bad guy, the actor’s approach to the material didn’t differ all that much in preparation for Heretic.“It was the usual process for me now, which is incredibly detailed and thorough, possibly to the point of insanity,” Grant said in the same interview. “I start months and months and months before filming, and I go through the script with the finest-toothed comb, over and over again, asking myself questions: ‘Why does he say that? Why does he do that?'”
Will Heretic go down as one of Hugh Grant’s best films? Find out the answer and more about Mr. Reed’s dark and devious designs when Heretic opens in theaters on November 15. The film also stars Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East as Sisters Barnes and Paxton respectively. And be sure to check out the film’s creepy trailer, courtesy of A24, right now.