Actor Nicholas Hoult Opens Up About His Major Career Disappointment

The 'Skins' alum reveals he was meant to star in an Oscar-nominated film.

Nicholas Hoult got candid about struggling to find film work.

In a new profile with The Guardian, Hoult spoke about experiencing three major career disappointments pre-pandemic, all in a row.

"I screen-tested for Batman and didn't get it. Screen-tested for Top Gun, didn't get it. Then I got the call from Tom Cruise: 'Hey, how about Mission: Impossible?' OK. Got it," said the actor. "Then I had to drop out because I was already attached to do some more of The Great."

He also talked about the difficulties of finding work at the height of the pandemic, saying that the seven-month period he spent without anything on the horizon was "the longest [he's] ever spent not working."

Still, he admitted that he enjoyed spending his time "just home being a dad," and that the industry-wide slowdown meant that he wasn't comparing himself to his peers while struggling to find work.

"It's easy in this industry to get FOMO—like this person's doing this, and that's coming out, and it's all happening for them. You want to be in the mix. But nothing was shooting, so it was actually quite peaceful."

Hoult, who got his big break in the 2002 film About a Boy alongside Hugh Grant, has been striving to reach the same level of success as his former Skins costars Dev Patel and Daniel Kaluuya. Thankfully, things have recently turned around.

Next, he stars alongside Nicolas Cage in Renfield, a modern retelling of Dracula. Hoult plays the titular character, who is Dracula's "familiar" and wants to break away from his difficult boss.

Houl also had a starring role in the critically-acclaimed comedic horror The Menu. The Mad Max: Fury Road star is also set to star in Robert Eggers' Nosferatu remake—a very different take on Dracula's story.

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