Hugh Grant Talks New Movie ‘Heretic’, ‘Bridget Jones’ Returns

On By Littum

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Hugh Grant may be in his villain era, but to hear him tell it, the British actor has always had a mean streak.

The 1994 romantic comedy “Four Weddings and a Funeral” put him on the map as a leading man, a far cry from the creepy educated guy who terrorizes a couple of young Mormons in the new horror film “Heretic” (in theaters Friday). Before “Weddings” was released, Grant took a role in Mike Newell’s next film, the period adult drama “An Awfully Big Adventure”, as a predatory director at a seedy English provincial theatre.

“Have you ever seen that movie? Nobody has, so I don’t blame you,” says Grant, 64. “I’m horrible, I’ve got yellow fingernails from chain smoking, I’m a stalking, cruel monster. And I remember thinking at the time, ‘I’m a lot better at this than I was at that ‘Four Weddings’ movie.’

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His creepy, cardigan-wearing Mr. Reed in “Heretic” follows in the footsteps of his other recent antagonists, including the narcissistic thespian Phoenix Buchanan in “Paddington 2” and even the troubled Oompa-Loompa in “Wonka.” Reed invites sisters Paxton (Chloe East) and Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) into his house with the promise of blueberry pie and religious conversation, but ends up subjecting them to the philosophical and physical twist.

“We put in pictures of me as a young man with a dog and ‘Bless This Mess’ (hanging) to try and calm the girls down. I played it as much as I could, really quite nicely,” says Grant. Then it gets much “weirder”.

But that’s what you get with Grant: “Hugh’s superpower is that he’s such a detail-oriented person,” says Scott Beck, who co-directed “Heretic” with Bryan Woods. He is “constantly challenging himself to evolve, especially the last 12 years of being on screen and doing more character acting roles.”

Grant talks about her “heretical” inspiration, her foray into horror and a rom-com comeback with “Bridget Jones: Mad About the Boy” (streaming Feb. 14 on Peacock).

Question: What was it about Mr. Reed, you thought you could run with it?

Answer: What I sniffed was a chance to make him the groovy professor who was a little different and a little crazy and iconoclastic and daring. I saw him teaching at some non-major university somewhere in the US with his English accent and his glasses and his double denim and getting a sort of following of especially young women. I saw him maybe having some seminars in his own rooms and some of the girls came to them and really thought he was something of a messiah. And then I always thought one of them died and it was unclear exactly what had happened. The university authorities were concerned. They didn’t fire Mr. Reed. They just asked him to move on. I knew those kinds of teachers.

Would the leading man Hugh of years ago have been happy with your current character acting tenure?

I think he would. “Four Weddings” hit the big time (and) although I’m very happy that I did all the romantic comedies afterwards—well, not all of them, but most of them, they’re good movies and people like them— I wish I had kept the other thread going as well. There was a brief foray into that thread in “Restoration,” a movie that not enough people have seen, starring Robert Downey Jr. I played this horrible, vain, goofy character with big beauty spots on her face. And that really was the last outing of “monster Hugh” until six years ago.

What changed at that time?

Well, it slowly built up. My entire romantic comedy career collapsed spectacularly in 2010, and then there was really nothing. Then, little by little, people started saying, “Oh, come and do a little of this and a little of that.” Very often those were the places where I was able to bring my enthusiasm for freaks, weirdos (and) damaged, evil people to the screen. “Cloud Atlas” was a bit of that. And certainly in “A Very English Scandal”, the TV show where I’m the politician Jeremy Thorpe. And even in “Paddington 2,” even though it’s comical, he’s a monster.

Speaking of movies, people should watch, what do you remember about your first horror movie, “The Lair of the White Worm” from 1988?

The cast didn’t know what to make of it, really. A night or two before we started shooting, I’m afraid to say at the read-through we found it so funny we couldn’t stop laughing. Then we noticed that (director Ken Russell) was laughing too. So I think he shot that movie, not really sure if his tongue was in his cheek or not. But still, the result is wonderfully weird. It’s crazy stuff when (Amanda Donohoe) spits poison on the crucifix. Wonderful.

Was playing Daniel Cleaver again in a new “Bridget Jones” a nice palate cleanser after Mr. Reed?

I suppose so. I’m also starting to think, “Stop it, Hugh, you’ve spent too many years doing romantic comedies one after another. Don’t just start doing evil freaks one after another.” (laughs) So you’re right, at least it’s a change from that. The challenge of bringing Daniel back… well, he’s dead, so that’s always a challenge.

It is there.

And the other was the character of Daniel Cleaver in the first two films, this boulevardier womanizer, I was very worried that in his 60s we wouldn’t find it funny. We might just think it’s sick. Oh. So I spent a lot of time working with different people, including (the “Bridget Jones” novelist) Helen Fielding, on a new backstory for him and what happened in the intervening years to give him some extra dimensions.