More than 20 years after first sharing the screen, Nicholas Hoult and Hugh Grant have been reunited for a new video interview.
The pair both appeared in the Oscar-nominated comedy-drama About A Boy, which tells the story of a spoiled Londoner who becomes an unlikely father figure to a misfit teenage boy.
Vanity Fair reunited the two actors for a new video interview, shared on Wednesday, in which they reflect on their time working together.
During the interview, Hugh revealed that the film almost didn’t happen at all.
“[The rights to the book About A Boy] had been bought by some other people and they were going to make it into a film,” he explained.
“I put my little hand up, because I loved the book, and they said, ‘sorry, we don’t really like you’. And then thrillingly, they lost the rights to the book, and then it went to Robert DeNiro and his company [TriBeCa Productions], and they said, ‘we like you very much’. And that was nice!
“And then we had to find you. We just needed the right weirdo. And there you were.”
The two met for the first time at a screen test for About A Boy, although neither of them had a particularly good memory of it.
“I think in high-stress scenarios I just kind of panic and don’t take in anything of what’s happening,” Nicholas admitted.
“So I don’t have any recollection of it – apart from I know that I had to wear a school uniform,but I didn’t go to a school that had a uniform at the time, so I borrowed my mum’s old boat shoes and painted them black with a marker.”
“Which would have been perfect for the character!” Hugh pointed out, admitting that his only memory is himself and the crew thinking, “oh great, we’ve got him, he’s brilliant” afterwards.
Hugh also said About A Boy marked a change in direction for his career, sharing: “I’d done all those rom-coms, but for About A Boy, I thought, ‘everyone’s going to see a whole new side of me’.
“I cut that ghastly hair off and I’m doing an accent in that film, so I felt it was something new. I recall he was a bit North London, he wasn’t Little Lord Poshington that I’d been doing until then.”
Nicholas also recalled an embarrassing incident that came about when he snuck off for a game of cricket between scenes.
“There was a stage next to the one that we were filming on that was open with nothing in it, and we’d run there in between shots and play cricket with some of the crew,” he said.
“And then I came in one time, dripping with sweat, and everyone was like, ‘we’re ready to shoot, and now this kid’s bright red, dripping with sweat, and we’ve got to dry his hair and everything’. And I was like, ‘oh no, I’ve made a mistake, I shouldn’t have done that’.”
Watch Vanity Fair’s full video interview – including Nicholas revealing how his work with Hugh continues to influence him as an actor, the Heretic star’s surprising wrap gift for his younger co-star and the scene that was actually all Hugh’s idea – below:
Interestingly, Nicholas’ interview with Hugh isn’t his only About A Boy reunion of late.
Earlier this year, he and his on-screen mum Toni Collette appeared in the film Juror #2, and spoke extensively about their first time working together while promoting their new movie.
About A Boy is streaming now on Prime Video.
