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Remember Nicholas Hoult, that adorable kid in the movie, About a Boy?
He grew up.
Hoult, who celebrated his 20th birthday this week, is one of the stars of a new film called A Single Man. The film concerns a professor (Colin Firth) who is mourning the death of his male lover; as the setting is 1962, he can't be too open about being gay or even about the grief he feels. Hoult plays one of the professor's students, a bright, risk-taking kid who becomes the catalyst for the professor's renewed interest in being alive.
Over the phone from Los Angeles, where he was getting ready to do a photo shoot for Elle Magazine, Hoult talked about the fact that A Single Man is the directorial debut for filmmaker Tom Ford.
"That's the brilliant thing about it," says Hoult, explaining how naysayers hoped Ford, who is better known as a fashion designer, might fail in his attempt.
"I think he's proved a lot of people wrong. They thought it would be just a visual thing and have no depth, but he also adapted Christopher Isherwood's novel for the screen. It's personal to him and autobiographical in some ways, and he did a great job."
He likewise praises the rest of the cast; as noted in past interviews with the British actor, there's a real generosity of spirit about Hoult that comes through loud and clear in his conversation.
Anyone who has seen Hoult as the swaggering star of the UK television series Skins has already seen him all grown up.
For North Americans, however, A Single Man marks a transition in his career as an adult.
"It wasn't part of any big game plan, though," he says. "It was just something I really liked, and there were a lot of great people in it. You never know how something's going to turn out at the other end, so I don't think you can do anything thinking it will be a launching vehicle for an adult career, or anything like that. You have to go in hoping for the best, knowing that you're working with good people, and trust in that."
His instincts haven't failed him so far. Hoult, who is one of four acting siblings born to a pilot and a piano teacher, was three years old when a theatre director spotted him. He was cast in a play (The Caucasian Chalk Circle) and made his film debut at age five, in Intimate Relations. About a Boy brought him a measure of fame in adolescence, and he subsequently appeared in such films as Wah-Wah, The Weatherman and Kidulthood. Hoult has also worked in theatre and television.
In 2007 and 2008, he was busy becoming very well known in the sex, drugs and rock 'n' roll TV series, Skins.
He had so much work that he left school. That was two years ago. "I decided that rather than do a half-hearted job on both fronts, I'd focus on the acting for now. I kind of feel you don't have to be at school to be learning, anyway."
A Single Man, opening today, will probably be a huge career boost for Hoult, especially as the movie is already attracting Oscar buzz.
"I don't think it's a movie about being gay," says Hoult of the film's themes. "It's about love and loss, and about appreciating the small things in life. My character is trying to grasp what his life is about, and, he's kind of a guardian angel, in some respects. He's very aware of life and of everything going on around him."
Next up for Hoult? A remake of the 1980s blockbuster Clash of the Titans, with Liam Neeson, Ralph Fiennes, Danny Huston, Mads Mikkelsen and Pete Postlethwaite. The movie is an adaptation of the myth of Perseus -- all gods and monsters.
"That was good fun. I haven't done one of the epic action films before, and there were some brilliant people walking around," Hoult says.
"I read all the myths again. I know a lot about Greek mythology. They're great stories, very entertaining. And the movie has a great moral," he adds, "for kids to go and see."