OUR LATEST ISSUE
Nicholas Hoult
Nicholas Hoult
The young star of Tom Ford's first film talks to PrideLife
"I have kissed a boy before! It was all right. I just got on with it"
You had a fair share of sex scenes in Skins, some of which were man-on-man - how were they for you as a growing boy?!
It’s so not sexy with all the cameramen and lighting men around and you’re just thinking about ‘Oh, we have to do this for a couple of minutes, then the camera’s going to move down there’. It’s all concentrating on ‘I’ve got to do this, be on that mark, go from that angle’…I’ve kissed a boy before though. It was all right. I just got on with it and did it.
So how was the A Single Man experience?
Great. Tom [Ford, director] is very visual, he knows exactly what he wants. He’s a cool guy, actually. He co-wrote the screenplay so he knew what he was after. He understands every character, knows them inside out. He’d come over and give direction and know exactly what he wanted. He was very meticulous.
And how did you get along with the famous fashion designer?
Yeah, we were talking about money one time. I said money can’t buy you happiness and was saying that he has everything anyone could possibly want. But what he does with his money is buy freedom. If you have money you can say, ‘Oh, I found this book and I’d like to make it into a screenplay’. You need to find something that makes you happy, something that’s not wrapped up with buying things.
It was a quick shoot, being wrapped in three weeks - did it feel rushed?
It was a great experience. When I used to film stuff, like on About a Boy, I used to get really upset at the end of a job because you build such a close relationship with this group of people, sharing emotions with them and then I had to realise that that’s just what happens. I loved Toni Collette [who played his mother in About a Boy]. Actually, everyone was nice on that film.
You obviously love acting, can you ever imagine doing anything else?
I can’t think of another job like it. Dressing up, pretending to be someone else. It’s like playing. And every day’s different. And you get to read a lot of stuff. OK there is a lot of hanging around waiting for a lighting man and a lot of ‘resting’ in between jobs but when it’s going well, it’s the best job in the world. It’s a bit like having a relationship: it affects the whole way you feel about your life at the time.”
What do you think it was about Skins that made it such an overnight success?
What makes it work is that they don’t conform to those American shows where they’ll just keep you in for years. It works because they get in new characters and give it a new lease of life. I saw the first episode of the new series and liked it a lot, but that might be because I didn’t watch any of the ones I was in!
So you never watch yourself?
It’ll be great in ten years time, but when you watch what you’ve done recently, you’re all, ‘Oh, I could have done that so much better! Why didn’t I try doing something else?’ I really don’t enjoy watching myself.
Do you feel the media and public automatically question the sexuality of actors who play gay characters?
It’s funny. Colin Firth was telling me that when he did Mamma Mia he was outed by the Italian press. They were saying that he was gay and doing Mamma Mia was a smokescreen. Mamma Mia is a pretty funny smokescreen!
A Single Man is showing on 16th, 17th and 19th October as part of the 53rd
