‘So hard-working… neurotic, almost’: Nicholas Hoult reflects on filming About a Boy with Hugh Grant

Actor was 11 when he worked with Grant in the rom-com

Nicholas Hoult has reflected on shooting the 2002 film About a Boy with Hugh Grant.

The film, adapted from a Nick Hornby book, starred as Grant as Will, a rich, child-free thirty-something who starts attending single parent meetings to meet women, which leads to him striking up a friendship with Marcus (Hoult), a lonely schoolboy with problems at home.

Speaking about what it was like to work with Grant, Hoult – who was 11 at the time of filming – told The Guardian: “I was only a kid when I worked with him, but he was so hard-working and diligent – neurotic, almost.  

“I can remember him being very specific about beats on the set, and trying things and getting it right. I think you have to be.”

While the pair didn’t stay in touch much after the movie, Hoult has been watching Grant’s success from afar. “In my head, I’m thinking it’s a kind of Hughnaissance, or something,” he said. “He had so much pressure on him [back then], and to see him free of that and just doing these wonderful dramas.”

He added: “I had so much fun watching him in Paddington 2, he was wonderful, and then in A Very English Scandal, and I’m about to start watching The Undoing. I’m enjoying what he’s doing at the moment, a lot.”

Hoult, who went on to star in Skins and A Single Man after About a Boy, can next be seen alongside Elle Fanning in The Great, which starts on Channel 4 on 3 January.