Meet Chloe East, the breakout star of new religious horror movie 'Heretic' with Hugh Grant

Chloe East waves to Bill Murray every day. She got a huge kick out of doing it for real, even though that first impression could have gone better.

Over a Zoom interview, the effervescent star of the new horror movie “Heretic” (in theaters now) proudly shows off a gigantic “Lost in Translation” poster in her house – a “mistake purchase,” East says, considering she thought it’d be smaller – and shares how she ended up sitting next to Murray at the 2023 Screen Actors Guilds Awards alongside her co-stars in Steven Spielberg’s “The Fabelmans.”

“That was a crazy moment. I was like, ‘Do I tell him that I eat breakfast with him every day?’ ” East says, petting her “needy” dog Michael. “I was like, ‘Hey Bill, I'm Chloe.’ And he is like, ‘Yeah, I'm Bill.’ I was like, ‘I know.’ And then I just couldn't say anything else. I had the photo pulled up to show him and everything.”

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More A-list meetings are likely on the way for this rising star. East, 23, appears in upcoming movies with Amy Adams, Colin Farrell and Margot Robbie, and notches her first lead film role in “Heretic.” She and Sophie Thatcher (“Yellowjackets”) play Mormon missionaries who knock at the door of the scholarly Mr. Reed (Hugh Grant), who makes the young women question their beliefs and faith as well as completely terrorizes them.

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East's character Sister Paxton locks horns with the sinister fellow, and Grant found the actress to be fearless, saying “I suffer terribly from nerves, particularly in the big closeups, but she has none of that. She's completely cool and relaxed, and the camera eats that up.”

Here’s what else new fans need to know about East:

Like her ‘Heretic’ character, Chloe East grew up in the Mormon church

East admits she’s very protective of the likable and super-positive Paxton. “She could have been a character you wanted to put on mute,” the actress says. “I really tried to make her this character you feel for and kind of understand and you don't fault her for the way she is: very naive and very excited to preach the gospel. It comes from a really good place.” East was personally invested, too, having grown up in the Mormon church before leaving during her teens. She reached out to friends who were on their own missions while filming, even getting a recommended passage from the Book of Mosiah to include in the movie.

The film's religious bent resonated with East. “When you grow up in the culture, your beliefs are what you've been told,” she explains. “As I got older, I've always been questioning my beliefs, even things like do I actually like sushi or did my parents just give me sushi as a kid? … I think I realized I'm a lot more like Paxton than I thought. I saw so much of her strength in believing what she believes, even though science says otherwise or whatever it is. It's this awareness of ignorance is bliss and it's so beautiful and I am inspired by that mindset and that takeaway.”

A Quentin Tarantino movie made East a true cinephile

Born and raised in Southern California, East started dance when she was little. “I always thought I was going to be a prima ballerina,” she says. “I was dancing 30 hours a week. I did ‘Nutcracker’ every year. I went en pointe really young.” That led to jobs in Hollywood and commercials, which got her into acting, including appearing on a couple episodes of “True Blood.” Then “I became a 14-year-old cinephile Criterion Channel snob."

The film that changed everything for her? Quentin Tarantino’s Western mystery thriller “The Hateful Eight”.

“I didn't even know who Quentin Tarantino was,” East says. “I looked him up and he had like a top 20 movie list. I'm like, ‘Who's Jean-Luc Godard? OK, I'm going to watch his films.’ I always say ‘Hateful Eight’ was the movie that got me into movies.” (Fun fact: In addition to “Lost in Translation,” her movie poster collection also includes “Phantom of the Paradise” and a Japanese one-sheet of “Butch Cassidy and the Sundance Kid.”)

‘Heretic’ actress is on the rise but maintains perspective

East starred in Netflix’s 2016 middle-school comedy “Jessica Darling’s IT List” and had roles in the shows “Liv and Maddie” and “Generation,” but her biggest break was in “Fabelmans” as the scene-stealing Christian love interest of Gabriel LaBelle’s Jewish Spielberg analogue. And you'll likely see more of her next year. In addition to having a supporting role in Netflix’s new dark comedy series “No Good Deed” (streaming Dec. 12), East next will star in a couple of high-profile movies: “A Big Bold Beautiful Journey” featuring Robbie and Farrell, and “At the Sea” with Adams, whom East counts as an "amazing mentor."

Overall, however, she’s keeping clear-headed about her burgeoning career. “I’ve had this quote instilled in my head ever since I started working, which is the calvary isn't coming,” East says. “Even when you work with Steven Spielberg and you've got everyone telling you you'll never audition again (and) ‘This is it!’ the calvary's not coming. There's nothing that I can really sit back on. I have to constantly be in tune with why I do this and my passion for it and not getting lazy with it.”