Although he’s had a busy year after starring in “The Garfield Movie,” “The Order”, “Juror #2,” and Robert Egger’s reimagining of “Nosferatu,” Nicholas Hoult still had a few minutes to search through Criterion Wardrobe for some of his favorite movies and some he hasn’t seen in a while. One such choice was Danny Boyle’s Shallow Grave, starring Ewan McGregor and Christopher Eccleston in one of their first screen roles.
“This movie I probably haven’t seen since I was a kid. I shouldn’t have seen it as a kid,” Hoult said. “There’s a scene in this, I’m pretty sure, where somebody, like, drills into someone’s forehead, and it is burned into my memory. It’s like one of the most traumatic things I’ve ever seen film.”
Switching to something more kid-friendly, Hoult picked up the animated adaptation of Roald Dahl’s “Fantastic Mr. Fox,” which includes voice work from George Clooney, Meryl Streep, Jason Schwartzman, Bill Murray and many more. Unlike most animated films, some of their scenes were shot in the wild, outside of a studio booth.
“Wes Anderson killed it with this,” Hoult said of the filmmaker’s first venture into feature film. “And this is a movie that my kids haven’t gotten into yet, but I keep playing because I know they will one day and I’ll enjoy watching it with them when they do. So this one is for the boys.”
Highlighting how deep his film appreciation runs when he picked the Coen Brothers’ best picture winner “No Country for Old Men,” Hoult recalled seeing it a few years ago in a way that few get the chance to.
“Christien, who did my makeup on ‘Renfield,’ worked on this movie, and he had the script and the storyboard, and he knew I was a big fan of this movie, so he brought them in for me,” he said . “And I got to see this movie while reading the script and looking at the storyboards, which, as a little film geek, was exciting because I got to see exactly what the Coen brothers envisioned and how it all came together.”
Discussing the 1957 legal thriller “12 Angry Men,” Hoult paid tribute to two highly influential filmmakers, calling out not only the film’s director, Sidney Lumet, but also Clint Eastwood, the man behind one of the year’s fan favorites, “The Jury.” #2.”
“(’12 Angry Men’), going in to shoot ‘Juror #2,’ was a movie that I watched quite a few times because I was just inspired by it, love it,” Hoult says. “And I also know that Clint knew Sidney and spent time with him, so I feel like there was kind of an element of him being a part of that process through Clint and just the story of the movie, I guess.”
Watch Hoult’s full Criterion Closet visit below.
