Heretic Costars Explain Portrayal of 'Modern' Mormonism After Being Raised in the Church Themselves

Both of the lead actresses in Heretic grew up with Mormonism, but playing missionaries in the movie was somewhat of a coincidence.

As co-director Scott Beck told Entertainment Weekly in an interview published Friday, Nov. 8, Sophie Thatcher and Chloe East — who play Sister Barnes and Sister Paxton, respectively, opposite Hugh Grant's villainous Mr. Reed in the A24 thriller — both had a religious upbringing that "was not necessarily on our bingo card when we were casting."

"We weren't like, 'We have to find two actresses that were raised Mormon,' " said Beck, 40. "But the reason they won the role is because they were so true when they performed it. We kept going back to our casting director, asking, 'Are there more people like these two? Because there's a truth there.' "

East, 23, told the outlet she "felt like I knew this character in my bones," considering her personal connection to the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

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"I wish I didn't know it so well and I had to research stuff, but I was like, 'I got it,' " she explained. "I, unfortunately, was this person or have this person inside of me that I can use in this movie. But it is very nice to have a role that does come somewhat naturally."

Thatcher recalled to EW that she felt an "instant connection" to East since they both grew up in Mormon families.

"We found a lot of parallels in our lives and connected, and I think they saw that and saw the truthfulness behind our connection to the religion," added the Yellowjackets actress, 24.

Speaking to Utah's ABC4, Thatcher said she "just thought of my cousins" and also "asked my mom a lot of questions" while preparing.

"Chloe is a lot more in touch, so I got a lot of feedback from her, and looked up her friends. She would show me her friends’ Instagram,” she added. “So I was like, this is what a modern Mormon looks like, and it’s so normal. There’s so many varying degrees of it."

As East told EW, Heretic gives a different take on portraying Mormonism.

"You always see very extreme takes — The Book of Mormon musical and even Under the Banner of Heaven is a very specific kind of extreme Mormonism mentality and extreme," said East. "I know a lot of Mormon friends who look at that series, and they're like, 'We're not like that. That's weird. That is not us.' And then you have a more truthful, more current, modern version of Mormonism that a lot of my friends identify with. And you just don't see that a lot. You don't see this version of Mormonism played out."

In Heretic, Mr. Reed (Grant, 64) appears harmless at first, welcoming two missionaries from the LDS Church into his home. But as Sisters Barnes and Paxton attempt to convert him to their religion, they become enmeshed in a psychologically twisted test of faith.

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In a conversation with GQ published earlier this month, Beck's filmmaking partner and co-director, Bryan Woods, said Thatcher and East "wanted to keep everything grounded" in their performances, and "find that authenticity that they know."

"Chloe has friends to this day that are missionaries on missions right now, so she was texting them while we were filming," added Woods, 40.

As for Thatcher, he said she "left the church earlier in her life" and "has family members that are in and out," which "definitely helped layer her performance as Sister Barnes."

"[The character is] somebody who grew up in the church but has this lingering question of, 'Is it real?' or 'Do I fit in here?' and 'What do I believe?' " Woods added.

Heretic is in theaters now.