tMF | The Movie-Fanatic

A friend of mine who lives in London keeps on bugging me about Nicholas Hoult. Not that it annoys me... I'm actually thrilled to talk about the actor, and was kinda disappointed I can't watch him on stage. Apparently, she saw him in Russel Labey's latest stage production called New Boy. The play was adapted from William Sutcliffe's best-selling coming-of-age novel.

It was Hoult's West End debut which was a sold out - even breaking box office records. Reports have it that viewers and critics alike have nothing but superlatives for Hoult's performance.

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It was a chance for Nicholas to hone his comedic skills and make people laugh, a big departure from his last role as Tony Stonem, an attractive, intelligent, popular boy but is manipulative, cold and calculating in the TV series Skins..

Back to my London friend, I believe her admiration runs deeper - in fact, she often mention one of Hoult's movies, About a Boy, and why it remains one of her favorites. Back then, Hoult is not the 'strapping young man' you see today.

Film critic Roger Ebert even considered Hoult as not being 'a conventionally cute movie child' in the mould of the Culkins. Even Hoult has this to say about his character in the movie:

Actually, there was more of me in Marcus in About A Boy – I was only 12 at the time and quite withdrawn. I think acting was probably one way I came out of my shell.

Nicholas Hoult's Transformation: Nick Hornby, who wrote the script for About A Boy, mentioned Hoult in one of his post, talking about his looks and how he convinced the young actor to promote his audiobook for Slam.

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Part of Hornby's post includes the following:

Nicholas kindly agreed to read the audiobook for SLAM, and the teenage girls in the audience for my reading at Lyme Regis told me that he was "hot".

He would probably be the first to admit that he didn't look hot in ‘About A Boy'. He was pretty odd-looking, which made him perfect for the role of Marcus. In Lyme, we watched a clip of About A Boy before the reading, and I sat there wondering if it was hard to have one's geeky, gawky pre-adolescence preserved in celluloid like that. Did it put girls off? The answer, clearly, is a resounding ‘No'. But of course what happened to Nicholas Hoult is only a more public version of what happens to all adolescent boys and girls: we watch each other become suddenly more beautiful, and we forgive past misfortune very quickly. There's something rather heartening about that. [ read more ]

People change and so do their looks. I think it's more apparent to some people, especially to actors like Nicholas Hoult, who started very young and always on the media spotlight. As you can see from the above photos, it was a significant transformation. I think the term to use is metamorphosis... am I right?

By the way, Nicholas Hoult was ranked #25 at the updated Top 50 Hottest Young actors list.

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More on New Boy: Just like fellow British actors, Hoult also went to stage school. But he only studied for 2 years, which is not substantial enough to learn all the tricks of the trade. But the young actor was quite appreciative of those years he spent at the Sylvia Young Theatre School:

Stage school gave me a chance to learn about acting, singing and dancing. But at the same time, it was impossible to step out of theatre and have a normal life where you weren’t surrounded by kids always talking about performing. You can get like that, even at the age of eleven.

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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 ]

Selected Reviews: I just love the reviews! Here are some of them:

Bad boys are irresistible, and Nicholas Hoult has gone straight to the top of the class… It is very amusing at times, capturing the defensive wit of the sexually inadequate...

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Skins star Nicholas Hoult makes an assured West-End debut… he doesn’t disappoint…an oddly touching & bizarrely charming tale of two boys bumbling good-heartedly into adulthood

and finally:

HOULT’S TALENT IS MUCH MORE THAN SKINS DEEP… Hoult’s perfect performance proves he’s a brilliant comic actor who is also capable of great depth. There are laughs a plenty...

The Last Word: In a recent interview, Hoult was quoted as saying:

It’s nice when people recognise you, but when you’re having a quiet pint down the pub with friends it’s a bit intrusive. I just think it’s better to keep away from the celebrity thing and be known for your work.

It's the kind of POV that separates the actors from the celebrities- the dedication to their craft and the apparent lack of interest in fame, and yeah, notoriety and controversies that go with it.

Hoult will next be seen in Tom Ford's directorial debut entitled A Single Man opposite Colin Firth, Julianne Moore and Matthew Goode and (rumoured to be part of) the 2010 movie adaptation of Clash of the Titans.

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What's on your mind? Have you seen the stage play New Boy? Are you a fan of Nicholas Hoult, and what would be some of your favorite Nicholas Hoult films? Let us know what you think!

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