What Was Nicholas Hoult's Turning Point?

After finding global fame with 2002’s About A Boy, Nicholas Hoult decided not to pursue acting. But the Jaeger-LeCoultre Friend of the Brand came back, garnering a string of successes in a career that has become emblematic of how we sometimes need to hold back to propel forward

- Jonathan Ho

INTERMISSION

“Each audition you do, each part you play, can result in a completely different path. That is fascinating because, for each role you get, there can potentially be 20 roles you didn’t get. And from every little bit of success, it can snowball to create new opportunities.”

DISCOVERED AT AGE THREE by a theatre director when he tagged along with his siblings in the theatre circuit, Nicholas Hoult would later shoot to international fame with his stellar turn as the oddball son of a suicidal hippy mother in 2002’s About a Boy. Three years later though, during a stint at the Sylvia Young Theatre School in London, Hoult decided he did not want to pursue a career in acting, but merely dabble in it as a hobby while he pursued more traditional academics. Yet fame called on him again. He was nominated for Best Actor for his role in the television teen drama Skins. Feeling overwhelmed by the attention, Hoult almost retreated, but ultimately decided to take the plunge.

It is said that child actors don’t usually go on to become successful adult actors, but Hoult would find his first role as an adult actor in Tom Ford’s 2009 directorial debut A Single Man. The film earned Hoult a nomination for the BAFTA Rising Star Award, and the English actor has remained on an upward trajectory since. He has well and truly established himself with a slew of iconic roles, most notably as mutant superhero Hank McCoy, aka Beast, in the X-Men franchise.