The one kind of movie Nicholas Hoult is dying to make: “Maybe I don’t get sent the good ones”
It’s hard to pick a singular theme running through actor Nicholas Hoult’s filmography, except for perhaps, movies about the undead, of which there are three: Robert Egger’s classic remake in the form of 2024’s Nosferatu, 2013’s Warm Bodies zombie romance, and the comedy horror, 2023’s Renfield, also starring Nicolas Cage.
Aside from this gory trio, more likely a result of pure coincidence than choice, the English actor has maintained a steady variation in his roles, from the brooding, guilt-ridden juror for a high-profile murder in Clint Eastwood’s Juror #2 to the powerful yet naive Peter III of Russia alongside Elle Fanning in HBO’s The Great.
Perhaps best known for his starring role as the wise-beyond-his-years Marcus in About a Boy alongside Hugh Grant, Hoult later swept to fame as the selfish anti-hero Tony in the first series of Skins, warding off any signs of the actor becoming the romantic heartthrob of his era.
Despite starring in films and series that grapple with love, relationships, and sex, the actor has never quite landed the classic rom-com role, a part he revealed he’d like to try in an interview with The Guardian, “though maybe not as a romantic lead,” he confessed.
Hoult has arguably come close to such a role, but evidently only in non-human form, as a zombie named R in Warm Bodies who saves Julie, a human, played by Teresa Palmer, and starts to develop feelings for her. It’s not your usual backdrop for a rom-com, but the passion, conflict and resolution relationship arc is definitely there.
Ruminating on the possibility of playing a romantic lead, the actor said he felt like there was “slightly less to explore with those characters” and questioned whether people even perceived him as “that guy”. It’s true, and Hoult may have dodged a bullet here with a tendency for those cast in rom-coms struggling when it comes to landing more nuanced, layered roles in their later career. Think Zac Efron, Channing Tatum, Hugh Grant and Ryan Reynolds, who are all only now beginning to take on more complex roles despite their early career rom-com type-casting.
“Maybe people just don’t think of me like that,” he reflected, “Maybe I don’t get sent the good ones. I’d love to pretend it’s all my doing, but it’s more about when things align and when directors cast you”. But at only 35, there’s still time for Hoult to land himself in the shoes of a genuine heartthrob, whether that’s as a literary Mr Darcy-type figure, an enigmatic modern man, or as the love interest in a sickly sweet rom-com romp.
Clearly, the actor isn’t too keen on seizing the gauntlet, with his latest performance taking him even further from his romcom fantasies, as the villainous Lex Luthor, CEO of Luthorcorp in the new Superman, due to be released early July. Written and directed by James Gunn, the latest DC adaptation stars David Corenswet of Twisters and Pearl fame as the eponymous superhero, opposite Hoult’s antagonist.
