tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

More than just skin deep
The young daredevil Nicholas Hoult in tMF profile!
by Jed Medina

He charmed his way into our hearts in ‘About A Boy’, and we watched him grow up in films such as Wah-Wah and The Weather Man. But while his roles in those films revealed a charming young boy who experienced his share of ups and downs, we were not prepared (and were perhaps even surprised) to see him as a manipulative and selfish young teen in Skins.

When I read the script I didn't really think I'd like Tony at all. But I got lucky to be playing a very different character from myself – it's fun playing someone else says Hoult of his role in an interview with Alaina Vieru.

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I've always wanted to do lots of different parts and do things that are interesting with good scripts and good directors. I've been pretty lucky, he says.

While he seems to be just your typical boy-next-door, Nicholas nevertheless demonstrates a maturity beyond his age - he’s decent, respectful and shows a deep understanding of his work in the entertainment industry. He also knows how to play the game - he’s not shy but is reserved to the extent that you’ll never find him behaving arrogantly or being too sure of himself. But he does know he looks good and that he has loads of fans!

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All about the Weather: Hoult seems to have gained a reputation as the young actor who got to work with some of today’s most talented actors. Aside from Hugh Grant in About a Boy, he was also cast alongside Gabriel Byrne and Julie Walters in Wah-Wah.

But the film that made heads turn is The Weather Man with Nicholas Cage. Lucky for us, we discovered an amazing site dedicated to Hoult, and a great feature includes last year’s blog at Blockbuster, written by Nicholas himself. Here he talks about the film and how Cage and Michael Caine made such an impact on him:

I should probably start by talking about "The Weather Man", which is just out on DVD and really why I'm here. Nicolas Cage and Michael Caine are both such awesome actors, I'd sit in awe of them most of the time I was on set, and learn so much just by watching them. Sometimes during my scenes with Nicolas Cage, it would just hit me how amazing it was to be in a movie with him, but you can't be thinking things like that. Not when you're supposed to be acting as well. You've got to think about the character and what's going on!

A lot of people didn't know what to make of the film at first. Nicolas's character is going through a midlife crisis in it, and everything's falling apart. It might sound depressing, but actually it's quite funny. It's a big studio film, but has a small indie feel about it, which I really like. It's also set in Chicago during the winter, and it's good to see it's not just us here in England getting the bad weather!

I was quite nervous about my American accent being up to scratch, but Michael Caine and I had the same dialect coach and I worked pretty hard at it. I think I got away with it! Once you get used to doing an accent, it becomes part of the character and you kind of forget you're doing it. After we shot the film, when I got back home and started reading other scripts, I found that I was reading them with an American accent. I couldn't stop!

Educating Hoult: While some of his contemporaries may prefer watching the latest film and enjoying the special effects, Hoult seems to prefer a more diverse type of cinema. Says Hoult:

When it comes to the kind of films I like the best, I try to keep an open mind. I'll see anything, really. It's always fun to find something new. I watch old films with my parents, romantic comedies and other girly films with my two sisters, and action films with my bloke mates. I'd really like to do an action movie one day. It would be so much fun, all the stunts and stuff, just not the dangerous ones obviously. I'm a huge "Bond" fan, and really looking forward to the new one. I also reckon Bond fans will like Pierce Brosnan in "The Matador". He plays a fed up assassin, and though his character is nothing like Bond, he's still really cool.

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A New Boy - what it's all about: An adaptation of the best-selling William Sutcliffe novel of the same title. All is not easy for sixth former Mark in his North London boys secondary school and his sexual identity is sent hay wire with the arrival of a 'new boy', Barry - who soon has most of the teachers and pupils male and female, under his spell. Mark sets about helping his new best friend to conquer the girls school as a means of researching the opposite sex meanwhile dealing with his own growing attraction to Barry. The hormonally charged world of the male adolescent is very well presented in this will they/won't they, is he/isn't he comedy which directly addresses the complexity of people's emotional and physical reactions to each other.

Says Hoult of his character, Mark:

He's a kid with a funny way of looking at the world and comes out with some hilarious lines. He's also obsessed with sex, but slightly confused by it as well. And he's attracted to Barry, but at the same time he's typically homophobic. So Mark's full of contradictions within himself, which makes him a very interesting character to play. Mark says Barry has "the face of an angel, the body of a god --and the name of a plasterer" and he has this huge attraction towards him, but at the same time he's adamant that he's not gay. He just gets taken over by these feelings of suppressed homosexuality and it's even more confusing - he has some very amusing interactions with Barry's sister as well. [ read more ]

What to Expect: He said that both film and television appeal to him. It’s a matter of the script, the storyline and having the chance to be directed by someone respected in the industry. While he may have sacrificed education to take on more challenging roles, he still thinks of school as being an important part of his life plans.

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Profile of Nicholas Hoult written by Jed Medina and Kathleen Sydenham, with excerpts from the interview by Alaina Vieru. Photos courtesy of Nicholas-Hoult.net. References also taken from his wikipedia page and from the movie sites of Wah-Wah and The Weather Man.