The Real Reason Why Hugh Grant Was Cast as 'Heretic's Mr. Reed

Filmmaking duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods are strong voices in the horror sphere of Hollywood. In collaboration with John Krasinski, they're the minds behind A Quiet Place, and last year's Stephen King adaptation The Boogeyman, as well as the Adam Driver-led 65, which they co-wrote and directed. This year, they partnered with A24 to debut Heretic, a psychological thriller they crafted to subvert audience expectations all along the way and test the traditional genre tactics with a new kind of scare.

In the movie, Sophie Thatcher (Yellowjackets) and Chloe East (The Fabelmans) play Mormon missionaries carrying out their duties to share their message. When they knock on the door of the peculiar Mr. Reed, played by Hugh Grant, their routine exchange becomes a deadly cat-and-mouse game.

In this interview with Collider's Perri Nemiroff, Beck and Woods explain their 14th century influences and intentions behind their Heretic horrors. The duo also discuss their approach to terror not through jump scares but through philosophy, working with Grant, who Woods says, "feels like a method actor" in the way he embodied the character, and tons more. Check out the full conversation in the video above or read the interview transcript below.

'Heretic' Offers Audiences a Different Kind of Horror

PERRI NEMIROFF: Can you guys tell me what idea number one was, the thing that started this all, but then I also want to know if you had a break-story moment, something you came up with along the way that made it feel whole?

BRYAN WOODS: Interesting. We always start from this kind of abstract, wide place, and the thing that we got really excited about was this question that we're asking ourselves, “Can we create a horror thriller film where you replace jump scares, and you replace the monster in the shadow with dialogue and philosophical ideas?” Can those become the thing that's generating tension? Can you basically do a movie that's entirely a chamber piece, it's all conversation, and still unsettle and provoke? And for us, the topic of religion is kind of, in many ways, one of our greatest fears, and what happens when we die? It's a great mystery. Is there anything after death, or is there nothing? All those ideas together felt like the start of Heretic.

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I wanted to ask about something that caught my eye in our press notes. You two were talking about your collaboration and one of you said, “There's always been this wonderful competitive collaboration when we work together where we push each other to do better.” Can you each recall a time while making Heretic when the other pushed you to do better, and now we can see it in the finished film?

SCOTT BECK: There's one shot in particular that I can think of that's indicative of this. It's in the trailer, which is this God's-eye-view of a camera coming up as one of the actresses is climbing up a ladder inside this doll's house diorama. That was an idea that I think both of us had a strong point of view for, and we then brought on the legendary Chung-hoon Chung to shoot this movie, the cinematographer, and he kind of became the third voice in that mix. We were constantly challenging and debating what's the best way to really hit the emotion of this moment, but also create something that feels hopefully very cinematic, too.

Image via A24

WOODS: Also, when you're dealing with this dynamic of what would people actually do in a terrifying situation, we're always pressure testing, like, “Wouldn't they leave? Wouldn't they call for help? Wouldn't they do this and that?” So, there's not a specific example other than we're always kind of fighting it out and trying to make sure the characters are being smart and making good choices.

Hugh Grant Went Method With 'Heretic'

"He is Mr. Reed. You're looking at Mr. Reed, and you're talking to Mr. Reed."

Image via A24

What is it like working with Hugh on the Mr. Reed character in a way where he does lose himself in the role and makes him feel like a fully realized person, but as an audience, as a fan of him as Hugh Grant, I can still have fun with the fact that that is Hugh Grant playing a character like that?

BECK: That was kind of our attraction to Hugh Grant, first and foremost, when we thought of him for this role, is that he has built up so much goodwill with audiences around the world over his romantic comedy movies that we all love and grew up with, but he's also gotten into this darker side of his persona in the last 12 years since Cloud Atlas. We love how the mash of those two — the charm, the wit, but the intellect and that darker edge — all coalesces into this world.

WOODS: It's crazy seeing him on set because he feels like a method actor. He is Mr. Reed. You're looking at Mr. Reed, and you're talking to Mr. Reed, and then we’ll wrap, and then he'll go home, and he looks like a movie star. He's so handsome and cool, and it's like, “Who is this guy? We've been hanging out with Mr. Reed all day long.” It's amazing.

'Heretic' Is a Dante's 'Inferno'-Inspired Journey Through Hell

Image via A24

You brought this up before, the idea of wanting to make a horror movie that is scary via dialogue, but in the middle of the movie, there is a noticeable shift in terms of atmosphere, vibe, and also how you scare the audience. What was the key to making that shift and upping the intensity, but while still making the entire thing feel like a fluid experience?

BECK: Absolutely. Our inspiration, to a certain degree, was Dante's Inferno; you're going to go deeper into the depths of hell, and you're going with the characters there. For us, it also was stripping back, from production design to the performance, a rawness. You're going beneath the layers of what you ostensibly thought was this innocent chat right off the bat and going into some very dark and violent places where, hopefully, it's constantly subverting your expectations but taking you somewhere that hopefully feels inevitable in terms of the course of tension, but also the higher intellectual debates that they're having about religion, too.

WOODS: We’re also activating this weird tool, which is anti-climax as climax. So, we're kind of hoping to misdirect the audience and start to put them into a new movie, but the hope is that it kind of finds its way back to this theological debate by the end of it. But it was a fun, bizarre movie, and I hope it combines our love of lowbrow and highbrow movies because we love it all. We're just fans of all movies.

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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