‘Nosferatu’, ‘The Order’ and more: Nicholas Hoult tells James McAvoy about his year

Since starring together in the X-Men series as a young Hank McCoy and Professor Xavier respectively, Nicholas Hoult and James McAvoy have become firm friends. Both have had quite a year: James is filming his directorial debut and Nicholas is starring in two new films: true-life crime thriller The Order, and Robert Eggers’ vampire film Nosferatu, in which he plays the innocent Thomas, opposite Lily Rose Depp. He’s also had rave reviews for the thriller Juror #2, directed by Clint Eastwood. 

James steps into the interviewer’s chair for our In Conversation, quizzing his pal about everything from their first meeting to the perks of acting – including the free food. “Hugh Jackman was getting fed every two and a half hours. And so for a couple of weeks we were like, can we just get fed at the same time? Whatever he’s having, we’ll have one, but we’ll split it.” James’ famous playful sense of humour had us in stitches, whether he was doing a Danny Glover impression or comparing Hoult’s haircut in The Order to his bob in About A Boy (“Did the director go watch About a Boy on movie night one night and be like, that’s the guy?”).

But for fans of Nicholas’ work, their conversation offers a revealing insight into his process. His fellow actor draws out candid conversation about not taking his characters home with him; and about the joys of his vocation. “It’s a wonderful way to experience life in as many different ways and shapes and forms as possible,” says Nicholas. “They say, you read a thousand books, you live a thousand lives… you get to go to these different eras and places and meet new people and learn new things and pretend to feel all these emotions, but you’re also experiencing all these things for real in your body and at that moment.” 

He also talks about working with Robert Eggers and Lily Rose Depp; about playing a white supremacist opposite Jude Law in The Order, and about taking direction from his hero, Clint Eastwood for Juror #2. “I remember clearly one day doing the scene with Kiefer Sutherland, which already is kind of surreal for me. But then out of my periphery, I can see Clint watching me and I was like, this is an odd moment in life. I’m obviously trying to do my best, but Eastwood’s right there watching me and it doesn’t get more iconic than that.” 

You can read our whole conversation between Nichols Hoult and James McAvoy below.

James: Hello over there. My name’s James McAvoy. I won a competition as the biggest super fan of Nick Hoult in the world. And I had to answer the question: If you had 40 minutes alone with Nick Hoult, what would you do to him? I wrote a big essay and I won. So thank you, Rolling Stone UK.

Nick: It was great reading the essay, it was special. It was a little too graphic for my taste at times. 

James: It was consensually violent at times, with a tender undertone.

Nick: I enjoyed the intent.

James: Alright, let’s start. Nick, do you remember where and when we first met? 

Nick: I think I do. We met before shooting X-Men: First Class – at a Glamour magazine awards one year. I think Atonement had just come out, I think Skins had come out around that time maybe. I remember meeting you then it passing very quickly and I was like, oh, one of my idols. You were friendly and nice, but also we didn’t really chat much. 

James: My enduring memory of first meeting you was in the unit base in prep for X-men: First Class – 2010, so 14 years ago – and being struck really quickly was that you were so a mature presence. You were 18 at the time I think, and the reason you were such a mature presence is because you were so yourself and you were so not afraid to act your age. Whe we did the second film you sort of decided we would be good friends and so we did and I’m so glad you did that. 

Nick: I probably decided that on the first film. I see myself as being very immature and I think that’s part of the reason why we’re mates is because we were both kind of ridiculous in some ways. 

James: So, you’ve got two films, they’re coming out within a week of each other: The Order and Nosferatu. Were you a fan of Robert Eggers’ work before signing up for Nosferatu?

Nick: Yes, big fan. I saw the Witch and then I loved the world that he created with that and the tension and I thought it was just wonderful filmmaking. He’s got such a distinct voice. So we met after that, I was shooting something in New York and we went and had a couple of beers and we got along very well and then kind of loosely kept in touch over the years… I became more and more of a fan of what he was doing with the Lighthouse and The Northman, and I just think he’s such a singular voice in what he creates and the stories he chooses to tell and also the performances that he captures, so I was eager to try and work with him. And when he sent me this, this was exciting because he’s been wanting to make it since he was about when he was nine. He did a play at school and then he put on a production in his teens and then he’s been wanting to make this movie version for 10 years. So it’s something that’s very personal to him and that he’s supremely passionate and that really filter down through every level of the filmmaking. 

James: It was interesting what you said there about the types of performances that he gets. You strike me as somebody who is interested in progressing and learning and expanding and trying different things. Do you go: ‘I understand the style of his films or his performance in his films’, so you just brought that – or was it something that he and you actively talked about? How did he get you to be a bit shit, is what I’m asking. [laughs]

Nick: That I do naturally. That’s a conscious decision. It’s kind of a performance piece I’ve been working on all my life… But yeah, I’m curious about acting because I never really formally trained that much… I liked the performances in his movies…They are always honest and true but there’s also a little heightened sense to them, which isn’t necessarily always where I feel most comfortable as an actor, pushing high stakes and things like that. So I was curious to learn. And also his process is so specific in terms in Nosferatu it’s very much long flowing shots through scenes that are very preplanned and arranged in a way that the marks the camera movements, the dolly, everything has to be captured in camera in a specific way. Performance wise, first of all he doesn’t like it if you move your eyebrows too much. And I’ve been doing that show, The Great, where a lot of comedy came from my eyebrows, I felt so first of all I had to try and stop wiggling my eyebrows in scenes. And then also Robert sent a list of movies like Angels and Insects and Bergman movies…  movies that were performance wise and tone wise similar to what he felt this world was. So watching those and spending time with him and rehearsing and understanding the process, him and DP Jarin Blaschke, how they kind of pull you into the world and formulate the design of the camera… that all kind of combined to figure out how to be a bit shit. 

James: Your character in Nosferatu finds himself in increasingly dire situations. Did the character and playing the character get through to you and hurt you in any way, because your character is really suffering? 

Nick: Whenever I’ve had deep fear or dread in life, it’s always been very internal. There’s been little moments of like, oh, that was a jump scare or like, oh that was close or something. You ride motorbikes as well,:I’ve had a couple of moments of like, oh that was scary, but it’s always a feeling inside. I don’t think I emote it very much. So it was interesting suddenly being in scenes where I really have to try and emote the deepest level of fear possible that I’ve never expressed. Talking to Lily Rose Depp, who plays Ellen and is brilliant in the movie, she was saying, I don’t think I’d ever screamed like I scream in this movie. So it was fun to try and be like, okay, well, how does this fear I felt actually physically escape? A little bit cathartic.

James: You don’t take the work or that deep level of emotion home with you?

Nick: No, I don’t, not when it’s a very focused set. This was a focused environment. So I’m not going home and I’m still in character or anything like that. But you go home and you’re like, that was a long day of being attacked by Count Orlok and whatever, trying to escape a castle and you’re physically obviously trying to trick your body and your mind into what that would be. So it’s kind of tiring. But then you’re like: better get a good night’s sleep because I’m back in there tomorrow.

James: What you just said about it’s usually a much more internal thing, but you’re in a film where the style of it is much more expressive is… I always think when I’m in those situations, an actor, I always think of Danny Glover and Lethal Weapon 2, where he’s at the end of the film and he’s looking at bad guy and he goes, “No way you live. No way you live.”  The way you live is internally the way that you saw your life pass before you eyes on a motorbike… But sometimes we’re in films where we have to do the Danny Glover version of that, do you know what I mean? And that was your Danny Glover moment. 

Let’s move on to The Order. By the way… you’re slightly reprising your haircut from About a Boy. 

Nick: People have said that. 

James: Did the director go watch About a Boy on movie night one night and be like: that’s the guy?

Nick: No, Bob Mathews had that haircut. So I finished doing Nosferatu and in Nosferatu they curled my hair and it had grown pretty long. And then I turned up and there was a photo I found of Bob Mathews and he’s got quite a severe fringe. And so it was my first day shooting and I was in the makeup trailer and I found this photo and I was like, I’m going to do the severe fringe. And I kept on making it more and more severe… I walked down to set and Justin, the director looked at me and I could see he was concerned. He looked at my face and my hair and was like na, na, na. He kind of kept ruffling my fringe, trying to make it blend a bit more. He was trying to hide the fact that I just given myself quite a chop across the front. But that is Bob’s hair and sideburns. 

James: Mate, honestly, your performance in it was so good, I don’t think I’ve seen you give a performance like that. And looking at the three films – including Juror #2 – your versatility can never be in question. 

Nick: I want that on my gravestone. “His versatility can never be questioned.” I went from doing Noferatu straight into The Order, straight into Juror No 2 with a weekend between each and those three directors, Robert Eggers, Justin Kurzel, and then Clint Eastwood. You couldn’t get more different in styles of how they direct. So it was exciting and interesting as an actor to have all of those experiences condensed like that. 

James: Did you learn anything whilst playing Bob Mathews that has stayed with you? 

Nick: To understand Bob or try and portray him, there’s lots of different things that go into the process of playing him… You have to read some horrible things and try and understand some ideology that is completely opposing to everything I believe in. But I think what’s interesting about exploring characters… we’re constantly trying to manipulate our brains and rewire them and create these different worlds that we’re living in and thought patterns and everything. And it was interesting trying to understand where these untruths, these false seeds get planted and how they develop and how people like Bob then manipulate people and misguide. And so it was a big learning curve in terms of how that sort of hatred spreads. And one of the key things I think for me in playing that character … was to play away from all of those elements, the bold headlines and try and understand from his perspective the love and community and things that he believes is actually his cause… From the outside you can clearly see that it’s not, but trying to understand it from a different perspective.

James: Is it true that in the scene where you and Jude Law first meet each other after he’s gone hunting and you’ve had him in your sight, you guys hadn’t seen each other till that moment? 

Nick: So yeah, Justin kept us separate, which was great. We had trailers that were connected, so I was just sitting in my trailer and I could hear Jude on the phone or hanging out in his trailer, but I’d occasionally go to walk out my door, and if he was there I’d be like, oh no, I’m going to close the door. I’m not going to go out right now. Because we did keep separate. So then when we did get to doing the scene where we just did meet, there was kind of an underlying adrenaline to it, I think because of that three weeks of buildup. But then also we finished the scene and we both dropped our little fake American accents and had a hug and we’re like, how’s it been going? 

James: I’ll tell you the truth, I had not heard the director kept you guys apart and that was just a setup for a gag, which was: when you did first see him, were you intimidated by the fact that he’d gotten to grow a big fucking actor ‘tache?

Nick: I was intimidated and I felt my pathetic sideburns. I was like, these are useless. 

James: Thank God. Thank God for your haircut. Because when you’re confronted with an actor ‘tache like that, you’re like, what can I do? It’s his film. Do you know what? I’m really glad I asked that for that dumb reason. I really hadn’t heard that he kept you guys separate. I’m so glad that I’ve a rubbish sense of humor because that was really cool and thank you for telling me that. 

Alright, this is a more general question. What do you love about your job?

Nick: This sounds weird, but it’s a wonderful way to experience life in as many different ways and shapes and forms as possible. They say, if you read a thousand books, you live a thousand lives. There’s an element of that being the physical embodiment of that quote and idea essentially where you get to go to these different eras and places and meet new people and learn new things and pretend to feel all these emotions, but you’re also experiencing all these things for real in your body and that moment. So I really feel very fortunate to do it. I think you do too, because it’s a better way to just experience life, meet people and learn new things. It’s always growing and changing as well. 

James: I think yours is the right approach. And I think that after working, and I’m not joking mate, after working with you, I tried to embrace that even more. We were on Days of Future Past with Hugh Jackman and Patrick Stewart and Sir Ian McKellen and Sir Patrick Stewart and everybody and Fassbender and Jen Lawrence and everybody’s in it. We were lucky, we had a lot of captains on that film – but you were like company leader at times on that with your energy and a lot of it went to what you’ve just expressed about how you feel about your job. I remember talking with Hugh about it as well, because you were still relatively young at it. 

Nick: Do you remember that Hugh would get all his delicious meals every two hours and then you and I would get the same meal but split it between us?

James: To this day, one day on a set in Montreal was the best steak I’ve ever had in my life. 

Nick: Yeah, I remember the steak. Yeah, the sweet potato and broccoli. 

James: He was getting fed every two and a half hours. And so for a couple of weeks we were like, can we just get fed at the same time? Whatever he’s having, we’ll have one…

James: Can we talk about Clint Eastwood and Juror #2? Does he shoot people if they get the lines different?

Nick: No, no. He’s very loose and relaxed and there’s also sometimes if you are hanging out on set before scene chatting, you’ll suddenly realize it’s gone a little bit quiet and you’ll be like, oh, they’re rolling now and he’ll just to get other stuff as well just to see if there’s anything in there. 

James:  Do you regret turning down any roles that turned out to be great things? Huge financially or critically or just things you really liked? 

Nick: If you said no there’s a reason you said no… but there was something in you that didn’t feel right. Even if that thing goes on to be brilliant you can step outside and go, it wouldn’t have been that with me. But there’s definitely things where I’m like, oh, maybe should have done that. I know you have that with a few things as well. I feel like you spoke about it. 

James: I think I probably do. I can’t remember any of them right now. 

Nick: One of the brilliant things about working with you and knowing you as a person is how you prioritize family and life outside of work. And I know that you’ve not always taken all opportunities because of that. 

James: I know. I mean I could have made it all the way to the middle if I had just fucked my family off… [laughs]. I’ve got the midlevel pay packet waiting for me. 

So, last question: what is the best piece of advice an actor or director has ever given you? 

Nick: Just a nice piece of advice that Clint gave. I sat with him and thought, I might as well pick his brain about how he does what he does. And he gave a very straightforward answer. He said, he was like, ‘Oh, it’s an emotional art form, so don’t think too much. You just do’. And I was like, oh yeah. It’s so simple in many ways when you look at it like that. I remember, but then another time he walked past me on set and he was like, he said something like, ‘What are you thinking about – the scene or whatever?’ And I was like, ‘Absolutely nothing.’ And he goes, “That’s my kind of actor”. 

James: Nice, man. Well listen, congratulations. And I wish you fucking all the luck and I cannot wait to see you in person.