This past weekend, Hugh Grant’s religious horror thriller Heretic was released in theaters, and in it the actor delivers one of his best performances yet.
In the film, Grant plays Mr. Reed, a mysterious man that two young Mormon missionaries visit in an attempt to teach him about their religion. This turns into a nightmarish experience for the sister missionaries as Mr. Reed has sinister plans for them.
Throughout the film Grant tests the faith of Sister Paxton (Chloe East) and Sister Barnes (Sophie Thatcher) through an intense theological debate about religion. Then things take a more violent turn.
Spoilers ahead, if you haven’t watched the film.
During the film’s climatic ending, after a series of events, Mr. Reed is trying to hang on to his life and he finds himself with Sister Paxton, and he asks her to pray, realizing he’s about to die at any second, which he eventually does.
Grant recently talked about the films ending during an interview with GamesRadar+ and he revealed that they actually shot two different endings, each one featuring a different performance from Grant.
The scene that made the final cut featured a terrified Mr. Reed begging Sister Paxton to pray, but the other one he shot features the character still trying to make it a game.
Grant explains: “I filmed it two ways. There’s a moment where I crawl across the floor to her, having been stabbed, which I did in two ways.
“One where he’s still trying to make the whole thing fun, as he’s been trying to make the whole evening fun. He’s kind of going, ‘Look at this, this is fun, dying’.
“And then I did another one where all his defenses have gone and he’s absolutely shitting himself that he’s going to die, and he’s very frightened. He wants some comfort and he wants her to comfort him, perhaps with a prayer.”
As for what take Grant prefers, he says his favorite take of the two was the one that we see in the final film.
Grant concludes: “I am not entirely clear the way they edited it, which of those two performances they’re going for. I think it’s the latter.
“But I know they telescoped the last 20 minutes quite a lot, the film was running long, so maybe it’s not quite clear. I quite like the second way – finally after a whole hour and a half of this guy totally being in control, he’s a frightened rabbit.”
If you watched Heretic, let us know what you thought!
