Last weekend, Mad Max: Fury Road burst onto the UK cinema screens to take the number two spot on the box office charts, only narrowly missing out to Pitch Perfect 2. Taking the role of Nux was a man who is no stranger to our screens, and whilst we can’t really base our decision on his Mad Max wardrobe, our man of the week has done enough thus far to convince us of his worthiness. Meet Mr. Nicholas Hoult.
It is hard for me to believe, as a man who has grown up watching Hoult on screen, that he is only 25, but when you realise he made his acting debut (in the film Intimate Relations) at six years old it makes a little more sense. His big break which propelled him into the limelight came in 2002 when he was cast as the adorable, bowl-cut-haired Marcus Brewer in the hit film About a Boy. Since then, he has worked tirelessly to avoid the pitfalls (sudden unemployment) that many child actors face as they transition into adulthood: As the antagonistic Tony Stonem in E4’s teen drama Skins in 2007; Hank McCoy (aka superhero ‘Beast’) in the 2011 and 2014 X-Men movies; and most prominently, at least for our purposes here at Candid’s fashion desk (no offence X-Men), as Kenny Potter in Tom Ford’s 2009 directorial debut, A Single Man.
“I love Nicholas,” Ford told The Guardian in a 2011 interview. “And he takes his job very, very seriously. But like all young actors he has to carefully choose the right direction. The thing with doing those big action films is that you rarely get to say two or three lines in between running around saying, ‘Look out!' – you don't really get the chance to act.”
That chance to act was granted to Hoult in A Single Man, where he showed that you don’t have to be the main character – Hoult’s character Kenny is infatuated with his professor, the film’s lead role, played by Colin Firth – to make a serious impact. Clearly impressed by his looks and ability to carry a good suit as well as his acting skills, Ford was quick to replace male supermodel Jon Kortajerena with Hoult for his 2010 eyewear campaign.
In Tom Ford‘s 2010 eyewear campaign
This, and various red carpet appearances, only allow sporadic glimpses of Hoult off-screen due to his fiercely guarded private life – even while dating Hunger Games actress and face of Dior, Jennifer Lawrence – but as a result, we almost always see him at his camera-ready best. Building up his IMDb portfolio at a frightening pace will allow us to see much more of him, with another X-Men movie out next spring and many more in the pipeline, but in the meantime, we celebrate Hoult in his many incarnations.
Mikael Jack – Fashion Features Editor
