When a screen giant of Clint Eastwood's stature asks for time to discuss a possible lead role, an actor doesn't dawdle and say, “Let me get back to you.”
In-demand actor Nicholas Hoult jumped at the possibility and admitted he was surprised Eastwood sought him out to star within the provocative legal thriller Juror #2, which marks the Oscar-winning director's fortieth time directing a movie.
After reading former San Francisco Bay Area screenwriter Jonathan Abrams' complex script and speaking with Eastwood, Hoult traveled to Georgia to play the morally challenged Justin Kemp, an expectant father who realizes he often is the real perpetrator in a single there may be a murder trial through which he acts as titular lawyer.
The crackling conversation starter, which asks audiences what they might do in the event that they found themselves in Justin's unlucky position, opens in select theaters on November 1st.
Shortly before the film made its world premiere as a closing selection at AFI Fest last weekend, Hoult – known for Hulu's “The Great,” George Miller's “Max Max: Fury Road” and plenty of “X-Men” movies – chatted about, how rewarding it was to work with the 94-year-old Eastwood and shared the helpful advice the film icon gave him.
“The wonderful thing about Clint as a director… and his confidence as a filmmaker is his ability to let the audience think and take the time to just sit there and say, 'Okay, we're not going to force anything on you here.'” . We'll just show you the facts of the story, and you then can pick it apart and work out what you would like from it.'”
It's a hallmark of Eastwood's illustrious directing canon, from his Oscar-winning 1992 western classic Unforgiven to his more recent truth-based 2019 Richard Jewell.
One of Hoult's favorite conversations with Eastwood came when he asked the director about acting and his approach to it.
“He said, ‘You know, it’s an emotional art form. Don't think too much. You just do that.' And that always stayed with me. … There was a moment later (during filming) where he walked past me as we were about to shoot a scene and said, 'What are you thinking about? What's going on in your head?' And I said, 'Absolutely nothing.' And he said, 'That's my kind of actor.'”
Hoult found Eastwood's calm and guaranteed demeanor helpful in suppressing his own tendency to be more self-critical of himself as an actor.
“Me and the neurotic elements of my nature (say) I can at all times do higher. I can do this. I could do this,” said the 34-year-old British-born actor.
Eastwood tempered this inner dialogue by often saying, after only one take, “That's good.” This will work. That’s what we’re going to do.”
For Hoult, it was a refreshing change.
“Hopefully some of that has had an impact on me because he's such a wonderful actor, but also a director. I think he is able to stay calm and say “No, this is it” and accept it instead of always trying to fight like I did. It was a very special energy to be here.”
Hoult's co-star Toni Collette, who plays prosecutor Faith Killebrew, was also overwhelmed by his calm and professionalism on set.
“Clint is a legend,” she said via email. “Working with him is so surprising. I mean, I've been doing this for, I don't know, 35 years or something, and I've never worked with someone who has a lot confidence in what they're doing, who's just so capable of their knowledge. He just creates this incredible atmosphere of calm. I feel it gave all of the actors a certain confidence, but additionally the thrill of pondering, “Oh my God, I'm working with Clint Eastwood.” But all the things is so matter-of-fact and easy, and he's just such a peaceful individual that nothing of all of the bells and whistles there, so just working with that simplicity, just no crap, it was very nice. Inspiring.”
Hoult particularly enjoyed the role of Juror Justin, as he is faced with a moral dilemma that tests his character's moral quality.
“I think most of us like to believe that 99 percent of the time we are good people and do the right thing,” he said. “I think the wonderful thing about this story is that you put someone who has had a difficult past but has put it behind them into a scenario where you go: What would you do? I think what's great about the film is that it really holds up a mirror where people who watch it can hopefully put themselves in that scenario and figure out what you would do because it's not an easy situation to be in Justin is brought.”
Justin finds himself in a hopeless situation in the jury box when he realizes he may have been the driver whose car struck and killed Kendall Carter (Francesca Eastwood, the director's daughter) on a dark and stormy night. His situation is only made worse by the fact that he is an alcoholic and hangs out in the loud bar where Kendall and her boyfriend (Gabriel Basso) had a fight before she was killed.
A prosecutor (played by Toni Collette, who reunites with Hoult after working together on 2002's About a Boy) sees the case as a potential boon to her ambitions as district attorney.
The trick to portraying the increasingly anxious Justin was not to exaggerate his excitement, as the character isn't a “flashy” type.
“The struggle he's going through may be very internal, which is clearly difficult because as an actor you wish to express as much as possible but at the identical time you may have to internalize it due to the situation he's in.”
He also liked Justin's ambiguity, and the audience later wondered whether he was the hero or perhaps even the villain of the story.
“It's interesting what you'll do to guard yourself,” Hoult said, adding that Eastwood cleverly handled the moments in the story when the audience begins to waffle on the gray area in which Justin lives . “Okay, maybe your first judgment about someone wasn’t necessarily correct,” Hoult says. “And I think that’s something we all experience in life. “Sometimes we like to label people really quickly… and then if you take the time and really do a little research, maybe none of your initial perceptions were right.”
Hoult is a huge fan of Eastwood's work and remembers “walking across the house” when he was young while watching Eastwood's spaghetti westerns – “A Fistful of Dollars” and “The Good, the Bad and the Ugly” were on television. He also remembers how he was ruined after watching “Million Dollar Baby” (Eastwood's second Oscar win as a director; his first for “Unforgiven”).
“I mean, he just made so many brilliant films,” Hoult said. “I feel very lucky to be able to spend time with him as a person, but it also means a lot to me to be part of his legacy and story.”
Audiences will see numerous Hoult within the near future – in very different roles. In “The Order,” out December 6, he stars opposite Jude Law and is each scary and charismatic as white supremacist Bob Matthews; He is Thomas Hutter in Robert Eggers' highly anticipated update of the gothic thriller Nosferatu, out December twenty fifth. And in July 2025, he’ll appear in James Gunn's Superman as DC's iconic villain Lex Luthor.
It was a busy yr for Hoult, who literally finished one film just in time to begin the subsequent. But he hardly complains.
“It was a completely different experience for everyone,” he said. “It just shows that there are so many different ways to make films, direct, act and create all these things.”
Originally published:
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