Nicholas Hoult talks to Elle Fanning about vampires, Nicolas Cage and 'The Great'
In Conversation with 'The Great' Co-Star Elle Fanning, Nicholas Hoult Talks About the Skills He Learned on Set and what it was like to work with famous actors as children.
Photography JASON HETHERINGTON
Styling LUKE DAY
Despite what his filmography might suggest – the lovesick zombie role in 2013's “Warm Bodies,” April's “Renfield,” in which he plays Dracula's tormented assistant; the as yet unnamed character in Robert Eggers' remake of “ Nosferatu ” being worked on in Prague - Nicholas Hoult swears he doesn't have an obsession with the undead. « With “Renfield” I thought it would be fun because he is usually a secondary character and I said to myself: “ how nice to explore toxic and codependent relationships in this scenario ” ». Hoult first came to notice in 2002, as the little boy in “About a Boy,” but it was his role as Tony Stonem in the iconic 2006 British TV series “ Skins ” that made him famous. Since then, Hoult has been part of the casts of blockbusters like “X-Men” and “Mad Max: Fury Road” , and films like “The Favourite” or the 2022 delayed hit “The Menu ” . Russian Tsar Peter III in the Hulu production “The Great,” co-starring Elle Fanning , earned him two Golden Globe nominations and one Emmy nomination. Exclusively for L'OFFICIEL, the two actors talk about the different skills they acquired on set, how they deal with having certain scenes cut, and what it's like to work with iconic actors when you are a child.
NICHOLAS HOULT: Let me start with something that I think will make you laugh: Guess what I'm doing right now? I'm practicing calligraphy. I have here my quill and ink. It's going terrible, as always. One time we were shooting “The Great”, and there was a scene where I had to hand Russia over to Catherine. Behind the scenes, I think I should have practiced my calligraphy and the nib, because I'm really awful. And between one take and the next I said to you: “Sure, because you're so good”. And you're like, 'No, really, I am' and I was like, 'Bullshit, this is so hard. How is that possible?”, then it turns out that you took calligraphy lessons as a child and write the Russian word for Catherine in the most beautiful handwriting I have ever seen in my life.
ELLE FANNING: You had to take it all back!
NH : You told me: “ Now write Peter”. And I didn't even know how to write Peter in English, let alone Russian, and it was just ink dots and bubbles and awful doodles.
EF: Do you have to write using handwriting in a scene?
NH: It's for one scene, but now I know I'm terrible, so I warned them, "That's not really my story, if you want someone to."
EF: As an actor you have to learn to do many different things: that's the beauty of it. Nick, you love to learn new things; I'd say that's probably one of your favorite things about being an actor.
NH: The same goes for you too, right? What is your favorite thing that you had to learn?
EF: Playing trumpet for "Ginger and Rosa", but they cut the scene. I trained for months. But I enjoyed the process! It was fun, it was so unusual, and it was something I would never ever do in real life. I had to go ice skating for “Somewhere”, and that was one of the things I felt most proud of, because I was able to do a whole sequence of steps.
NH: Is there anything that you then continued to do?
EF: Nope! I leave it on the back burner. But you ride! Always ride a motorcycle.
NH : Yes, I learned to ride a motorcycle when we did "Young Ones".
EF : And you're a great dancer! Do a lot of dancing in “Renfield”.
NH : Cut! Gone. There was a whole dance sequence that we rehearsed for weeks. We shot it all in one night, we all had amazing dancers, and then, in the end, it's not in the movie.
EF : But this is show business, isn't it? It always happens. Sometimes the very things that excite you the most get cut .
NH : It has been a learning process for me; when you get attached to parts of the script and work really hard to learn them but then in the end they just don't work.
EF : Oh, absolutely. I've had this feeling in the past. Also, when I act, I imagine a montage in my head. So, sometimes, some scenes aren't fully cut scenes, but they're edited in a way that wasn't what I had in mind. This, too, can be difficult for me. Inevitably there is always a reason, but one becomes attached to one's vision.
NH : I think I'll be doing some editing in the meantime too. But there are definitely moments where you shoot the scene and you're so emotionally involved. And then they tell you, "That was great, but we couldn't see your face." So you have to maintain some kind of awareness; that's the trick.
EF : Oh yeah, I shot a scene once – it was a 10 page scene, I was crying hysterically, one of those big scenes. We finished the take and everyone was like, "That was amazing, perfect." But they weren't filming, and we just said, 'Okay, we have to do this again.'
NH : Yet you are good at being objective on this point. You're always on the lookout for show changes and keep an eye out for things like that, making sure that scenes are really shot right.
EF : I like this part. I think we really understand each other, it gives me security and puts me at ease. In a production like “The Great,” you have to be very uninhibited, and working together on the scenes we have to do, we don't feel embarrassed. We challenge each other, challenge each other and be honest with each other. I think we're both brutally honest, which I respect more than anything. If it's not okay, I want you to look me in the face and say, "Turn it down," and I'll do the same to you.
"We are both quite competitive and experience acting almost athletically" Nicholas Hoult
NH : There's the trust and the ability to push each other and to make high demands. We're both pretty competitive and we're almost athletic in acting at times, so when you get on set it's show time. We have similar approaches on set, and we're also ready to laugh and make fun of each other, without offending each other. We both know that the other is capable of doing really great things, so we're willing to do anything to achieve this, and even admit the times it doesn't work out.
EF : I'm going to ask you – I'm getting you ready for the press tour when they definitely ask you this – why this obsession with vampires? Are you one of them? Is this the reason?
NH : That's right. I like leeches and anything that drinks blood, including mosquitoes.
EF : You told me you had to eat bugs for “Renfield”.
NH: That's right. I ate quite a few bugs. Dried and flavored crickets, though, so they were quite tasty, to be honest. Those salt and vinegar are the best; there was also barbecue taste. But what I really didn't like was a potato bug that hadn't been flavored and just tasted like an insect. It was also quite large. But they were already all dry and dead, I wasn't picking bugs off the floor.
EF : If you were a real actor, you would have!
NH : There were also little caramel cockroaches – those were the best actually, except they get stuck in your teeth. We did discuss, though, why in "The Great" I also had to eat dirt. The food and props team is extraordinary in their dedication to creating these beautiful things to eat. However, there were two occasions in which I balked: chicken hearts, because I thought: "Today I don't want to eat 50 chicken hearts if I can help it"; and when they made lard ice cream I had to gorge myself, and the fake ice cream they made was sugar lard at room temperature.
EF : Are you doing a weird accent in “Nosferatu”?
NH : You know me, I always flirt with an accent, so yes I am . Then I worked with a dialect coach who told me: “Don't do it. It's terrible. It's offensive." Had they been more diplomatic, they would have said, "It's cool what you're doing, but it doesn't necessarily help us with the story." I think I consciously thought, "I just did 'Renfield', I don't want to end up in the same vein." But then I thought: “That's nonsense”: “Renfield” is an action comedy set in modern times and is almost a parody, while Robert Eggers is making a very serious “Nosferatu”, a gothic horror film. They are different; I will be different of course. But I was trying too hard. Has it ever happened to you?
EF: Yes, and you also create problems for yourself that no one else thinks about. You think too far. But did you have an English accent in “Renfield”?
NH : Yes, but in this one I'm using my voice more, and the language is modern, whereas in “Nosferatu” it's more the language of the era, but not like in “The Great”. I can't say so many funny things in this movie. Have you ever done things and thought: “But are they in the same world?”. Have you ever given up on something because you thought, “It's too similar”?
"We push each other, we challenge each other, we are brutally honest, with each other" Elle Fanning
EF : Yes, of course, it happened to me. Usually, for me it's about period films. I have worn a corset so many times. A casting director once told me I have a "very period" face. I've also been told that I look like Bill Hader; I once saw a picture on Twitter of me and Bill Hader side by side that said we looked alike, and it's so true. I see it too. Who do you look like? To me you don't look like anyone, you look like yourself.
NH : Who am I being mistaken for? For any young English actor my age. In a neighborhood coffee shop, I accepted praise for “Me Before You,” a film by Sam Claflin.
EF : Is there anyone you admire as an actor that you would like to emulate?
NH: It's a mix of different people. I grew up watching Robin Williams and Jim Carrey. And you?
EF : I've always loved Nicole Kidman. It's my number one. And I love Carey Mulligan. He always makes the right choices.
NH : I'd like to see you do a thriller, very dark, action, a movie like “Seven”: look at you and think: “Oh, Elle is really in danger”. Not because I want to see you in danger, just because I like that kind of movie.
EF : I've always wanted to make an action film, so having to train for it: I think it would be a lot of fun. It has happened to you often and therefore you are always in training. You've made all kinds of them. It seems to me that you have just a good balance between different genres. I'd love to see you do a family drama-comedy, where there's an ensemble, like "Osage County, Rachel's Getting Married," something like that. What was it like meeting Nicolas Cage?
NH : I was so excited that he was in this movie, because it was a crazy experience for me to work with him when I was 14 on “The Weather Man”. At that age I hadn't seen much of his work and was fully aware of how iconic Nicolas Cage was, so it was incredible to work with him again. I was almost more in awe the second time around, but seeing him as Dracula is pretty incredible too, because it's such an iconic role, but then you throw in Nicolas Cage, and there's nothing more iconic, in many ways, than these two together. And also watching the way he works – where his inspiration comes from, his dedication – has been really wonderful.
EF: I remember you hearing he was going to do it when you were on the set of “The Great,” and you were so excited and had your fingers crossed that he'd take the role.
NH : I'd like to ask if you've ever worked with someone you worked with as a kid who you didn't really like at the time but then got to re-evaluate.
EF: Absolutely: Jeff Bridges, who I worked with on “The Door in the Floor” when I was four. And of course I had absolutely no idea who it was. I was drawing a lot at the time and Jeff Bridges and I would draw together because he is an amazing artist. He taught me how to draw the legs so they weren't just sticks.
GROOMING Liz Taw
PRODUCTION Tina Liveras
DIGITAL TECHAndrew Mayfield
PHOTO extension ASSISTANT Alfie Bungay
STYLIST ASSISTANT Zac Sunman
