The stars of Heretic have revealed that some of Hugh Grant’s off-hand comments in the unsettling horror movie were actually improvised.
Hugh takes the lead in the new A24 film as Mr Reed, a man who invites two young Mormon missionaries into his home when they come calling, only for things to take a swiftly sinister tone.
Speaking to Radio Times about the film, cast member Sophie Thatcher admitted that the Love Actually star often kept the rest of the team on their toes when he would “change it up a lot and throw in little, just little quirks and, like, strange mannerisms”.
Co-star Chloe East then shared one such example, when Mr Reed is talking to the two young women about different US fast food chains.
“Everyone loves, ‘I’ve never had a Wendy’ and, like, I forgot that that was improvised,” she recalled.
Hugh also spoke to HuffPost UK in the lead-up to the film’s release, where he revealed another moment in the film he improvised on set.
Referring to a lecture-like speech his character gives at one stage of the film, comparing organised religion to the board game Monopoly, he explained: “I feel like it’s a lecture, it’s a party piece he’s done before. And has really honed it. Including the little jokes.
“And that’s how I learned it. I learned it so that he was incredibly fluent and adept with it.”
He continued: “I invented a few little grace notes that I felt he would have learned to put in to amuse his students. For instance, I’m describing Monopoly, and I’ve got out the little pieces, and I say, ’everyone has their favourite, I shan’t tell you mine, meow,”
Sophie recently opened up about working with Hugh on Heretic, admitting that while she was initially “intimidated” to work with someone so high-profile, she eventually grew to love his honesty.
Meanwhile, Hugh has also spoken out about getting to know his Heretic co-stars, sharing that they bonded when he had a “meltdown” early on in the production process.
Heretic is in cinemas now.