He’s known for romantic comedies like Love Actually, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary, so it’s no surprise that Hugh Grant fans have been left shocked by his latest role in a “chilling psychological horror.”
Considered his most chilling role to date, the 63-year-old British actor plays a man who kidnaps a pair of young Mormon missionaries, before subjecting them to a terrifying series of tests and games, the outlet reported. Independent.
Titled Heretic, the film (out November 15) is written and directed by Scott Beck and Bryan Woods, the writers behind John Krasinski’s 2018 post-apocalyptic horror A Quiet Place.
But while fans were surprised by Hugh’s latest project, it’s not the first time the former Hollywood heartthrob has played a “slimy villain.”
In fact, the more “repulsive” roles, as the actor calls them, have become something of a theme in Hugh’s career, as he reinvents himself from the lead in a charming romantic comedy to creepy bad guy characters.
He’s known for romantic comedies such as Love Actually, Notting Hill and Bridget Jones’s Diary, so it’s no surprise that Hugh Grant fans have been left shocked by his latest role in a “chilling psychological horror” (pictured).
Hugh’s roles have become noticeably darker as he’s aged; in 2018, he gave viewers a completely sleazy guy role in Jeremy Thorpe’s TV version of A Very English Scandal.
This followed his hugely popular appearance in the critically acclaimed 2017 film Paddington 2, when he played the villain in his role as former tap-dancing actor Phoenix Buchanan.
In 2019, he appeared on the big screen playing an ungentlemanly private investigator in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen.
He then appeared on television alongside Nicole Kidman as Jonathan Fraser, a pediatric oncologist with a dark secret in The Undoing.
It’s fair to say that both Thorpe and Dr Fraser are a far cry from the pretentious characters he played in Four Weddings and a Funeral and Notting Hill.
“I find that as I get older, I’m more and more drawn to and more comfortable in disgusting roles,” he told The Daily Mail’s Weekend magazine in 2020.
“The more disgusting, the better. The camera is a very strange thing, because it’s a bit like a lie detector. It can detect truths you didn’t even know existed.
‘One of the things he loves is evil in human beings, because beneath the thin veneer of civilization we all have some evil.
Hugh appeared in the acclaimed 2017 film Paddington 2, playing the villain in his role as former tap-dancing actor Phoenix Buchanan (pictured).
In 2019, he appeared on the big screen playing an ungentlemanly private investigator in Guy Ritchie’s The Gentlemen (pictured).
Hugh and Martine McCutcheon in Love Actually
‘You watch some of the great films from people like Tarantino or Scorsese and you wonder, “Why do we enjoy them so much?”
“The answer is that they touch on something very real about all of us. So when you’re playing someone who’s pretty unlikeable, you’re already working with a reality that the camera likes. And that’s what makes playing good guys so much harder than playing bad guys.”
Appearing on The Drew Barrymore Show in 2023, Hugh said: ‘I got too old, fat and ugly to do romantic comedies, obviously, so I moved on to more interesting things.’
This isn’t the first time Hugh has felt the same way. In 2019, the actor admitted that he thinks he’s too old to star in any more romantic comedies.
Speaking to The Hollywood ReporterHugh said: “I’ve gotten too old, ugly and fat to do it anymore, so I’ve done other things now and I have a little less self-hatred.”
Although he admitted that he felt like he was ‘in a box’ playing the male lead in several romantic comedies, the actor joked that he couldn’t complain about the money it brought him.
He explained: “I was paid a lot of money. I was very lucky. And most of those romantic comedies I can look in the eye; one or two are shocking, but for the most part I can look in the eye and people like them. And I firmly believe that our job is to entertain.”
When asked what he wished he had known about navigating fame and success early in his career, Hugh revealed that he wished he had explored different genres.
He appeared on television alongside Nicole Kidman as Jonathan Fraser, a pediatric oncologist with a dark secret in The Undoing (pictured).
In 2018, Hugh gave us a TV version of Jeremy Thorpe’s A Very English Scandal (pictured).
Over the years, Hugh has starred in a total of fifteen romantic comedies, including Four Weddings and a Funeral in 1994 alongside Angie MacDowell.
He said: “I should have made interesting choices and done different things. Instead, I repeated what I did almost identically about 17 times in a row.”
Over the years, Hugh has starred in a total of fifteen romantic comedies, including Four Weddings and a Funeral (1994), Notting Hill (1999) and Love Actually (2003), with his most recent notable romantic comedy performance being in The Rewrite (2014).
Hugh reportedly last appeared in a horror film in Ken Russell’s 1988 pagan horror comedy The Lair of the White Worm.
A trailer for the latest installment, Heretic, was recently released, prompting fans to comment on their surprise at the character choice.
One person wrote on X: “I’m absolutely loving the latest leg of Hugh Grant’s career, harnessing his rom-com charm and channelling it into wicked maniacs. HERETIC speaks my language.”
Another wrote: “I love a creepy Hugh Grant character,” while a third added: “This is not… the role I was hoping for Hugh Grant. But I’m here for this trailer!”
In the clip, Hugh is shown capturing the two young women (played by Chloe East and Sophie Thatcher) before insisting: “I won’t hold them back if they want to leave, but I want them to choose which door to go through based on their faith.”
The actor’s creepy character then writes the words “BELIEF” and “UNBELIEF” in chalk on two doors.
Heretic will be released on November 15th.
