Nicholas Hoult :: A Single Man’s guardian angel
All eyes will be on the upcoming Academy Award nominations to see if the momentum for the Tom Ford written/directed film A Single Man will continue with more nominations for the acclaimed film. As of now, stars Colin Firth and Julianne Moore were nominated for both Golden Globes and Screen Actors Guild Awards in Best Actor and Supporting Actress categories, respectively.
Then on January 8 the British Academy of Film and Television Awards nominations for 2009 were announced, this time with Firth nominated along with the film’s least familiar face (at least to American audiences) -- Nicholas Hoult who was cited in the Rising Star category (along with An Education’s Carey Mulligan).
In the film, which Ford adapted from Christopher Isherwood’s 1964 novel, Hoult plays Kenny, the young student who opens the eyes of Firth’s George and encourages him to start living again. At first Kenny is persistent to the point of suspicion on George’s part. What does he want and why does he keep turning up? Yet he becomes an important and compelling component to the film.
Interested Ford
Hoult, though, is no stranger to movies: in 2002 he played Marcus, the 12-year old boy who befriends Hugh Grant in About a Boy and helps him grow up. Now eight years later EDGE’s Jim Halterman spoke to the young actor (on his 20th birthday no less) about his experience making the movie, being nude on the beach with Firth and where audiences can see him next on the big screen.
Still Hoult hasn’t been in front of the cameras much since his screen debut in About A Boy. He has done a few films as well as some work on the small screen. "I did a TV series called Skins, which I think they show over here on BBC America. Some people describe it as Dawson’s Creek or The OC on speed. It’s a more realistic British version where you’ve got people at the right age playing the characters. I did that for a couple of years and then this got set up."
His audition for A Single Man sparked the interest of Ford, who reached out to Hoult shortly after the first time director realized he was right for the role.
"I got an email from Tom saying how much he liked the audition and thought I was really great in it and then the next week we pretty much started shooting." Story continues on following page.
Watch the trailer for A Single Man:
