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Although British actor Hugh Grant has played villains before in the likes of Paddington 2 and Dungeons & Dragons: Honor Among Thieves, his menacing role in A24's new horror movie Heretic feels worlds away from his previous work.
The latest film from director duo Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, who have previous experience with horror having written A Quiet Place, follows two Mormon missionaries (played by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East) as they attempt to convert a man named Mr. Reed. Grant plays this mysterious stranger, who turns out to be more dangerous than both the missionaries themselves and the audience could have anticipated.
As Reed uncovers his secrets, the more twisted this tale becomes, although there are many things left unknown about the cruel villain. Grant therefore took it upon himself to create a "full biography" for his character, which he used to help understand Reed's motivations.
In an interview with GamesRadar+, the actor tells us this approach is reasonably new to him, despite being in the industry for four decades. As he emphasizes, this was needed to unlock Mr. Reed: "This is what I do now, I go through the script with an extraordinary tooth comb, over and over again. Why does he do that? Why does he say that? The answer to each question suggests something about him and his past, and that mushrooms into a full biography, which I have all typed out on my computer, about his relationship with his parents, his siblings, what happened at school, what traumatic things have happened, and what hurt him in this particular case to become the monster that he is now."
Continuing, Grant states that this was necessary to ensure that the audience are able to connect in some way with his villain: "I think it's very important that the audience can kind of smell the damage inside him. Otherwise, there’s a danger that you just become a pantomime villain, but if they can smell there's a suffering person in there, then they're more interesting."
Whilst a role as monstrous as this one is new for Grant, he does believe that overall actors love playing baddies, telling Entertainment Weekly that "every actor really prefers it". But why does he think audiences are continually drawn to these vicious villains?
When we put this question to the actor, he intriguingly concludes: "If you go to any pantomime, who does the audience love? They love the baddie and we are drawn to baddies. My personal theory is that it's because we are bad and it's a recognition of our true nature - selfish, evil, cruel, vicious."
Heretic releases in UK cinemas on November 1, before opening in US theaters on November 8.
For more, check out the other upcoming horror movies that are soon heading your way.
