The Big Picture

Collider’s Perri Nemiroff sits down with Hugh Grant, Sophie Thatcher, and Chloe East, the stars of A24’s
Heretic.

In the movie, two Mormon missionaries knock on the wrong door and find themselves trapped in a cat-and-mouse game with a sinister stranger.
During their interview, Grant, Thatcher, and East discuss their on-set chemistry, unexpected improvisation, and the lessons learned for future horror movies.

In addition to being an A24 movie (which we’re always sat for) and co-starring Yellowjacket’s Sophie Thatcher opposite The Fabelmans’ breakout Chloe East, there’s something else very special about Heretic. This thriller also marks a horror first for Hollywood’s rom-com king, Hugh Grant. And, from their interview with Collider’s Perri Nemiroff, it seems the actor was right at home in the genre, flipping the script and “testing” his co-stars all along the way.

From writing and directing duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods (Boogeyman, A Quiet Place), Heretic follows Sister Barnes (Thatcher) and Sister Paxton (East), two Mormon missionaries dead-set on spreading the good word. When they’re invited into the mysterious Mr. Reed’s (Grant) home, however, they find themselves in a terrifying cat-and-mouse game that even their faith may be unable to save them from.

Check out the full conversation in the player above or in the interview transcript below to find out how Grant played off Thatcher and East’s performances and how he helped keep them present on-set. They also share their tried-and-true and brand-new horror movie skills, when they knew they had the chemistry to make this story work, and more.

Hugh Grant Wasn’t Sure ‘Heretic’ Would Work Until After Wrapping
“Things translate so differently on screen.”

PERRI NEMIROFF: I feel like this movie is the kind of movie that does not work unless you cast the perfect trio in these roles, and I do think that they found that in the three of you. Do you each remember the very first moment, either in prep or on set, when you stopped and looked around and said to yourself, “My god, we really are the perfect team for these roles?”

CHLOE EAST: Not that moment specifically, but even being here now and doing press for it, and even going back to our chemistry reads, too, I always felt like I should do it with Sophie.

SOPHIE THATCHER: We found it in the chemistry read.

EAST: And they chose me! But it just felt very right that we were our characters and that we got to do it together. It was awesome. And then I didn’t even believe he was going to do the movie, and then he did and showed up to Canada, and we did it, and it feels very right.

Image via A24

HUGH GRANT: It seemed good at the time. I’ve learned over the years that things work better if you don’t pre-rehearse them, and you take it off the other actors. You react rather than act, but you need very good actors to do that, and that was clearly the case here. I was able to continually watch them and instinctively change things depending on what they were doing. That really helps. But the first time I realized that the very important chemistry you were talking about did work was when I saw the film screened for the first time.

EAST: Yeah, because you never really know.

GRANT: You don’t. I’ve done romantic comedies where I thought, “Our chemistry was fantastic,” and then it’s come out dead as a donut, and vice versa.

THATCHER: Things translate so differently on screen. It’s true, you never know.

Hugh Grant’s Meows Took His ‘Heretic’ Co-Stars Out
“He was testing us to make sure we were present, which is amazing.”
Image via A24

Sophie and Chloe, I read that Hugh would improv every once in a while and keep you two on your toes in that sense. Can you each recall a time when he threw a curveball your way, and it gave new life to a scene that you didn’t even know it needed?

EAST: The one time I broke was when Hugh meowed when he said his favorite Monopoly piece. Even when I watch the movie, it just takes me out.

THATCHER: Him asking about Moroni — he was like, “Moroney? Maroni?” And obviously, us being Mormon girls, we would be like, “He just mispronounced it!” You gotta say something. So, he was testing us to make sure we were present, which is amazing.

Image via A24

Hugh, now I’ve gotta ask you about working with the two of them. Obviously, you’re an icon and you’re super experienced. I love hearing about how new voices rising up in this industry can offer new techniques and tools, things that maybe you didn’t even know you needed. So, what’s something about the way that the two of them work that maybe gave you a brand-new experience as an actor?

GRANT: Well, they were so cool. They were so good at doing it. I’m ultra-neurotic, and these two turn up every day absolutely perfectly prepared, perfectly on time — I’ve had some nightmares in the past. And to be completely free and easy in front of a camera and do stuff I couldn’t dream of doing, having long, long, long reaction shots lasting 10 pages, which is about 10 minutes, I couldn’t do that to save my life.

Ten-minute-long reaction shots?

GRANT: They were crazy takes. What’s a long take in a film normally? Two minutes, three minutes, and these were 10, sometimes 12-minute takes.

Most impressive.

Related ‘Heretic’ Review: Hugh Grant Preaches Bad News About the Good Word in Religious Horror Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East are Grant’s prey in the horror flick.

I love the fact that this is a horror movie that gets its scares via the tension that the dialogue can spark, and that’s not something we get too often. I want to see all of you make more horror movies — I know I’m getting more from you, [Sophie] — so can you each tell me a new tool in your acting tool kit, so to speak, that you know you gained from this film that you could maybe apply to another horror movie in the future?

THATCHER: I’m really good at that lip quiver. I’ve got a lot of experience, so I’m gonna keep using it. [Laughs]

EAST: I think I had a lot of doubt going into it that I couldn’t keep up the crying and the emotional terror that carries on the whole movie. I think after, it was a big sigh of relief that it was over, “I don’t have to wake up crying again!” Maybe I could do that. I’ve never done that before. It always scared me to do this kind of movie because it just seems hard to do.

THATCHER: But you did it!

EAST: I did it!

Heretic is in theaters now.

Two young religious women are drawn into a game of cat-and-mouse in the house of a strange man.Director Scott Beck , Bryan Woods Runtime 110 Minutes Writers Scott Beck , Bryan Woods Studio(s) A24

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