Heretic stars explain how Hugh Grant kept them on their toes
Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East discuss working with Grant in the new horror film.
In recent years, Hugh Grant has graduated from conventional leading man to one of cinema's finest character actors, playing a wide range of weird and wonderful parts from a memorable Paddington 2 villain to an Oompa Loompa in Wonka.
And in his latest film, Heretic, the star takes on arguably his most sinister role to date – a mysterious man named Mr Reed who invites a couple of Mormon missionaries into his home only for him to begin acting incredibly suspiciously.
Those two missionaries are played by Sophie Thatcher an Chloe East, and speaking exclusively to RadioTimes.com they explained how Grant brilliantly kept them on their toes during some of the film's long, dialogue-heavy scenes.
“He would change it up a lot and throw in little, just little quirks and, like, strange mannerisms," Thatcher explained.
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“Everyone loves [the line] I've never had a Wendy and, like, I forgot that that was improvised," added East.
"Yeah, little clever moments that, just like, brought up the character even more so and made him stranger and more charming in a way, but also more off," Thatcher continued. "But yeah, it was just like, because these scenes are so long, I was really grateful that he was able to change it up and keep us really present and keep us really engaged.
"He would ask us questions to make sure that we were actually listening, because when you're in these scenes, it's so easy to fake listen, but you really had to be there because, I mean, of course, the camera sees it, but he was checking in to make sure that we were there with him."
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Thatcher added that she was glad that Grant did not take a method approach and tended to immediately snap out of character when the camera stopped rolling – although East did start wondering if that might simply be an extension of the role.
"Mr Reid is never like, explicitly sinister, he's kind of... you know, a nice, charming guy who says some things that make you stop in your track," she said. "So I think, yeah, if maybe I could overthink it and be like, "Well, he's just nice to me now because he is Mr Reid, and he is trying to pull me in…'"
Thatcher added: "But there was a switch, where like, his humour changed because he... Hugh has such specific humour, like, as soon as the camera was done rolling, he kind of just switched back into that and was a lot more grounded and less like presentational.
"Because Mr Reed is so presentational, he's like a professor, and then Hugh himself is very... maybe, like, more inward."
Heretic is now showing in UK cinemas.
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Authors
Patrick Cremona is the Senior Film Writer at Radio Times, and looks after all the latest film releases both in cinemas and on streaming. He has been with the website since October 2019, and in that time has interviewed a host of big name stars and reviewed a diverse range of movies.
