‘Superman’ Star Nicholas Hoult Knew He’d Lose Title Role To David Corenswet, Admits Being “Better Suited” To Play Lex Luthor
Rather than feeling any sort of resentment over the fact that he lost the film’s lead role, Superman star Nicholas Hoult says that not only was James Gunn correct to cast David Corenswet as the Man of Steel over him, but that the director’s instinct to instead pick him as the next cinematic Lex Luthor was 100% on the money.
RELATED: Ex-Lex Luthor Jesse Eisenberg Has Advice For ‘Superman’ Star Nicholas Hoult: “Don’t Watch Me”
Hoult, who is no stranger to superhero cinematic universes thanks to his stint as Beast in Fox’s X-Men film series, offered his compliments to Corenswet and Gunn during a recent interview given to Entertainment Weekly‘s Nick Romano in promotion of the DCEU kick-off film’s rapidly-approaching release date.
Having originally auditioned to play Clark Kent himself, the actor recalled to his host that even though he had his sets on the title role, the entire time he was reading his provided script, “There was a tiny little inkling voice inside of me. I was like, ‘Maybe you could do a good job with the Lex stuff.'”
“And then I’d bury that thought immediately,” he added, “because I was like, ‘Hang on! You’ve got to focus on the Superman scenes. Let that be. Don’t get sidetracked here, Nick.'”
Hoult further admitted that although he left his in-person audition on the Warner Bros. lot with a strong feeling that it he wasn’t going to get the role, upon catching a glimpse of Coresnwet waiting for his own audition, he immediately clocked him as the right choice for the next silver screen incarnation of Big Blue.
“He was sitting in the sunlight, just like Superman does to charge up, to get his powers back,” said the actor. “I looked at him and I was like, ‘Wow! That’s Superman.'”
However, despite being passed over for his desired role, Hoult was still asked by Gunn to join the cast of Superman, albeit as the hero’s archnemesis, Lex Luthor – an offer which he found hilarious and exceptionally apt considering his aforementioned inclination towards the villain’s lines while reading the script.
“I kind of let out what I would describe as an evil cackle,” said Hoult, “because instantly, when I was reading the script and all those instinctual reactions I’d had, I was like, ‘Oh, you were right! That is the character you’re better suited to in this story.'”
From there providing a small tease into his approach to Metropolis’ would-be ‘man of the people’, Hoult explained that his version of Lex was “someone who really worked hard for a long time in terms of science and himself and how he wants to be perceived and his intellect.”
“Even, for me, physically in this, I wanted him to feel like he was as much alpha as possible, where he’s someone who’s, in his mind, done everything he possibly could for himself but also for humanity in some ways,” he detailed. “In his mind, he should be adored. And then this person, this superhuman, this alien has come along who all those things come naturally to in many ways. That gives him a deep, deep resentment.”
To Hoult’s credit, while admittedly just a small and somewhat contextless preview of the full film, the brief glimpses we got of his performance in Superman‘s recently released full trailer suggest his Lex will prove a worthy addition to the character’s pantheon of variants.
Barring any surprise delays, Superman is on course to land in theaters on July 11th.
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