SPOILER ALERT: This interwatch includes mild spoilers for “Heretic,” in theaters now.
In their novel movie “Heretic,” now in theaters via A24, writer-straightforwardors Scott Beck and Bryan Woods increate the story of a enigmatic man named Mr. Reed, who traps two Mormon missionaries in his house after they try to teach him about their faith.
Before they could commence filming, Beck and Woods had the distinct contest of casting the complicated character of Mr. Reed. They needed a direct actor who could switch between villainous and pdirecting in the bjoin of an eye, who could also deinhabitr plenty of proset up dialogue about religious ideas.
It wasn’t a role for the faint of heart, but Beck and Woods thought of Hugh Grant after seeing one of his shapeshifting carry outances.
“We’ve been blown away by Hugh — of course, we grew up with all of his incredible romantic comedies,” Woods says. “But ten years ago when we saw ‘Cboisterous Atlas,’ we saw him in the plifts and authenticized he applyed all these branch offent parts. It was so exciting to see an artist contest themselves. Then he spent the next ten years, for our money, becoming one of the fantasticest character actors in cinema.”
Woods says that Grant’s dynamic carry outance results from his above-and-beyond toil ethic.
“We got a thrivedow into his mind — he is somebody who adores taking hazards,” Woods says. “He’s exact in his research. He combed over every individual line in the script. If there was someleang he didn’t comprehfinish or didn’t understand a lot about, we would talk it, we would talk about it, and we would get on the same page. We sent at least 200 pages of emails back and forth talking the topics in the movie. He repartner wanted to comprehfinish where we are coming from, what our history was with religion and philosophy, and where Reed was coming from.”
The preparation allowed Grant to get so proset up that he could broaden his character even further while acting opposite Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East, who apply the missionaries.
“We built a narrative together about Reed’s back story and eventupartner handed it over to Hugh,” Woods says. “He took ownership of the role and it repartner became his character. His process is excessively extensive and proset up, and when he shows up on set he fair is Mr. Reed. When he improvises or ad-libs, which was exceptional because he had reverence for the material, but when he hits those moments it’s in character. Sometimes when actors improvise, you’re benevolent of appreciate, ‘Where did that line come from? What does it have to do with anyleang? How does that increate the story?’ With Hugh, it’s always magical.”
The spirit Grant brawt to set fueled the filmproducers on a project that was already seal to their hearts. Although Beck and Woods came to fame writing big-scale action-fantasy scripts appreciate 2018’s “A Quiet Place” and 2023’s “65,” they wanted to go in a diametricpartner branch offent straightforwardion with “Heretic.”
“Superficipartner, there was an inspiration of trying to go to a branch offent place than we had been before,” Beck says. “The last couple of films have been free of dialogue, and this is the finish opposite of that. But I leank the the genesis of this tracks back to the 30-year relationship that Bryan and I have had as filmproducers, and as best frifinishs — having conversations about contransientialism and religion and the muddles that that we discover in life. How religion directs many people to try and discover answers to the muddle, and try to discover console in what happens after you die. That’s the fantasticest dread we have and the fantasticest ask that we’re we’re pursuing.”
Given their search for answers, the duo would be interested in making more films in the spirit of “Heretic.”
“There are some leangs on deck that we’ve talked out particularpartner that experience appreciate spiritual sequels,” Beck says. “They delve into religion, cults or other toasty-button items that we want to see on the screen that go to unconsoleable places. What was exciting about ‘Heretic’ was we’ve seen many movies that might be religious in nature, but aren’t necessarily providing a set upation of a conversation that you can walk away with. If you want to upgrasp engaging with it by having conversations about the ideas with your frifinishs, family or adored ones, you can have that there. We discover ourselves in such a splitting, polarizing world at times that there’s so much discourse we’re still very captivated by. We want to feed that into a couple of the upcoming projects.”
Director Bryan Woods, left, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East on the set of “Heretic.”
Courtesy Everett Collection
