Nicholas Hoult is Taking Over the World...

...and I don't mind one bit.

Okay, so maybe Nicholas Hoult isn't quite "taking over the world." But he is in every other magazine with a new photo spread in conjunction with the release of A Single Man. Thankfully, this exposure is colliding with my rising infatuation with lust for him. I was initially hooked on Nicky about a year ago when I saw the first couple episodes of Skins, but after I finally finished the damn first season about a month ago, I was gone. He was rude, manipulative, vile, uncaring, almost sociopathic and, yet, oh so sexy. I don't know what this says about me, but I have a thing for male characters who are charming and, at the same time, complete dicks. I don't care who Tony was fucking on that show, I would have ridden him like a bronco (overshare?). That's why I didn't understand the episode where Tony offers to have sex with Maxxie and Maxxie TURNS HIM DOWN. I was like, "Are you blind, boy?"



Now that A Single Man has blown up, relatively speaking, and Nicky has become director/fashion designer Tom Ford's muse of sorts, he's been featured in all of the fashion magazines. I'm fascinated by the director/muse relationship in general since it usually involves a director inspired by an actress (and who among us isn't inspired by at least one actress in any time period?). There are a couple of memorable male/male relationships of this sort (Kurosawa/Mifune, Scorsese/DeNiro, Scorsese/DiCaprio), but Ford and Hoult are interesting because Ford seems entranced by his beauty more so than his talent (which, let me reiterate, Nicky does have). As I'm sure I've said before, I'm all for the objectification of men--Lord knows women have been subjected to it for years--so it's nice to see that a smart, interesting actor like Nicholas Hoult is being exploited, for the time being at least, for his looks. Better him than someone like Orlando Bloom or Hayden Christensen.

Another reason, besides his looks and his talent, to love Nicky is his great sense of humor. Take a gander at this interview from the Guardian and see what I mean. The first half of the interview portrays him as nothing more than your typical "young male actor uncomfortable with the spotlight," but by the end his true playful personality emerges in such quips like:

"The questions I was asked most often were about Tom Ford's direction, playing a gay character and then there was the being-very-naked question [about his skinny-dipping scene with Firth]. It was just naked, gay and Tom, really."

and

"I check to see if he still wants me to say he's a bare-knuckle fighter. 'Oh yes – I've been training with my nan this morning,' he laughs. 'Actually, I've got tonsilitis and I've spent the last few days on the sofa eating ice cream with my nan. Today we're going to watch Driving Miss Daisy. Then we're going to re-enact it afterwards. We're already dressed up and… no, I'm not going to go there.'"

and

"He's also been reading at lot. At the moment it's The Five People You Meet in Heaven and before that it was The Life of Pi, which he thought would make a wonderful film. 'But I looked it up and Ang Lee's already on it. Damn him, he steals all my ideas.'"

Brains, beauty and a sense of humor? He's almost too good to be true.

For more Nicholas Hoult hilarity, check out this review of his favorite restaurant.