Nicholas Hoult‘s journey to the DC Universe wasn’t smooth sailing. Before landing the role of Lex Luthor in James Gunn‘s Superman, he faced a tough setback when he learned he wouldn’t be starring in Matt Reeves‘ The Batman.
In a recent chat, the Skins star opened up about the moment he found out Robert Pattinson had snagged the role of The Dark Knight.
“I remember a week before we did the Batman test, I was driving in my car and I had the radio on and they were talking on the radio about how Rob was going to be the new Batman,” Hoult recalled on the Happy Sad Confused podcast. “And I was like, ‘It’s not confirmed yet! I’m auditioning next weekend. Like, give me a chance.'”
Pattinson went on to star in The Batman, which hit screens in 2022. A follow-up to the DC film is set to arrive in 2026. For Hoult, missing out on the role was a real gut punch. “It’s an emotional blow,” he admitted.
“Your imagination does not know … you are aware on a practical level: ‘I know I am auditioning against Rob.’ And Rob is fantastic in that movie,” Hoult continued. “That was the right decision. But you get excited by the prospect. Matt [Reeves] is a fantastic director and the script. It’s a cool movie and I want to be a part of it. It’s a brilliant character. There’s a weird period before you can get to the acceptance and see the movie and be like that was the right choice, you go through the period of ‘what could I have done different? Why not me?’ You run through all those things.”
Later on, Hoult tried out for the Superman role in James Gunn’s reboot, which eventually went to David Corenswet. But Gunn saw something special in Hoult and cast him as Lex Luthor. This time, the audition process was different, thanks to Gunn’s understanding of Hoult’s previous experience.
“James Gunn is such a fantastic director and I was so excited by what he was building at DC,” Hoult shared. “When we spoke…because they knew I had been through [the Batman] process, they didn’t want me to necessarily have to go through that again. That was very kind of them. There was an element of them being like, ‘We like you as an actor. We want you to be in this world.'”
Check out the video of Nicholas Hoult’s Happy Sad Confused podcast interview below.
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