Within the new horror movie Heretic, two younger Mormon missionaries knock on the door of somebody we all know solely as Mr. Reed (performed by Hugh Grant). At first, he appears innocent and inquisitive about their faith.

“It’s so vital to search out your religion in a doctrine you really imagine,” Mr. Reed tells the missionaries, portrayed by Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East. “And that’s a really, very private problem that I’ve struggled with for a really, very very long time. What’s the one true faith?”

However a dialog about religion quickly reveals a gradual burning menace which turns into terror as his company discover themselves held captive and making an attempt to flee.

Now, one could also be pondering “Grant, a villain?” Does not he normally play the befuddled romantic lead like in Love Really, Notting Hill, and 4 Weddings and a Funeral?

Grant spoke with Morning Version‘s A Martinez about Mr. Reed and build up what he calls his resume of “weirdos.”

The next interview has been edited for size and readability.

A Martinez: Who’s Mr. Reed?

Hugh Grant:  He seems originally of this movie to be a superbly good, respectable, moderately clever man dwelling along with his spouse in a middle-class dwelling someplace in the course of America. And these two good Mormon missionary women, they’ve heard that he’s expressed some curiosity in listening to a bit extra about Mormonism. He’s very charming on the door and he invitations them in. They are saying, “We will solely are available if there’s a feminine current.” He says, “My spouse’s right here. She’s cooking a pie. Come on in.” They usually go in. They’re excited to speak to Mr. Reed. They’re excited for the pie. After which issues begin to go barely bizarre.

Martinez: So, the interplay between you and the 2 missionaries… For me, as somebody who’s a man in his mid-50s, I all the time assume that once I’m at a espresso store or at a retailer and I’ve to work together with somebody 30 years youthful than me, that it appears from a distance and even up shut…awkward. I am not saying sexual or something like that. It’s simply that I don’t converse the language anymore. I felt that as I watched Mr. Reed converse to the 2 women.

Grant: Nicely, you is perhaps proper that among the weirdness is just an age distinction. However I feel Mr. Reed believes that he’s very down with the children. I feel he labored on the college as a instructor and thought of himself to be the form of hip one who the children warmed to greater than the opposite professors.

A key second in kind of figuring out who he was: I made a decision he was the form of instructor who wore double denim. Double denim was extremely vital to my imaginative and prescient of this character.

Martinez: Did you create a personality that we do not see within the movie? A bio, so to talk.

Grant: Sure.

The older I’ve gotten – the extra appearing I’ve performed – it’s nearly obsessive. So, sure, there’s a whole bunch of pages of biography of this man.

Martinez:  Wait, wait. A whole lot of pages that you just wrote?

Grant: Sure. Sure. However whereas I’m writing them, I’m additionally connecting with the director, the writers saying, “What do you consider this? What do you consider that?” However a whole lot of it’s simply me. And I favor to maintain it secret as effectively.

Martinez: Why do you do this?

Grant: There’s two causes. One, I’ve this perception that this intense marinade within the character and background in some way makes the character richer on digital camera. And the opposite is that I’m so nervous about appearing, particularly as a brand new movie looms in the direction of me on the calendar that simply doing 4 or 5 hours a day, on daily basis, for weeks and months, calms me down.

Martinez:  So Mr. Reed is charmingly creepy.

Grant: Yeah.

Martinez: You appear to slide into it very seamlessly.

Grant: Thanks. That’s candy of you.

Martinez: How did you get there? Contemplating what we’re going to see within the movie and the way it begins – it’s fairly the transition.

Grant: There was a restricted sequence I did known as “The Undoing” with Nicole Kidman and it was the identical factor the place there’s an exterior character and an inside character. I had in depth margin notes in my script for every as a result of what the outside character could also be doing or showing to do within the scene is in no way the identical as what the inside, broken beast is definitely pondering and plotting.

Martinez: Do you want having that darker aspect?

Grant: I’m fascinated by it. And it’s enjoyable for actors. And it’s additionally all the time fascinating and magnetic for audiences. They’re all the time drawn to the dangerous man moderately than the dreary goody two sneakers lead.

Martinez: I like gangster motion pictures. I like motion pictures about gang members, mob members. What’s that draw – like a moth to a flame – to the legal ingredient, to the evil aspect. I imply, that is the half that I feel everybody has, whether or not they wish to admit it or not.

Grant: Nicely, my private idea is that we’re fairly disagreeable and that some individuals suppress it higher than others.

Martinez:  Some individuals suppress it higher than others. (Laughs)

Grant:  Sure. You, not so effectively. However the older I get, the extra I feel that the veneer of civilization, it’s a really skinny veneer. And I really see it cracking everywhere in the mean time.

Martinez: I imply, it is laborious. I feel it is getting more durable for individuals to cover that aspect.

Grant: I’m eager about what social media did, as a result of earlier than social media and the flexibility for individuals anonymously to troll one another, this was all hidden. You nearly by no means knew. That these individuals hated you or hated your spouse or hated Black individuals or Jewish individuals or no matter vile factor they’re saying on-line. And now it’s all there. And I feel that’s deeply miserable for humanity to study. Oh, my God, we’re ghastly.

The audio model of this interview was edited by Phil Harrell, with digital adaptation by Majd Al-Waheidi.