Nicholas Galitzine ‘could have chemistry with a lamp’

Galitzine is on the rise, if you know where to look, and that last verb is key, as her appearance often influences her roles. But when you ask the 29-year-old English actor to describe his aspirations, those full lips and defined cheekbones become irrelevant. He hasn’t really done any fantasy or science fiction, despite his childhood obsessions with The Lord of the Rings and Star Wars. and I wouldn’t mind diving into those formative genres. He admires the absurdity of the villains that Nicole Kidman and Hugh Grant play in the Paddington films, and would love the challenge of facing such a wacky antagonist.

“It takes a lot of skill as an actor to jump into that space,” he says. “They both tore it apart.”

One step at a time, right? Galitzine will continue playing beauties, as long as there’s something extra underneath. For these men, beauty can be a tool or a curse. Sexuality is a source of power for George Villiers, the ambitious English courtier who rises through the ranks by seducing King James I in the recently released Starz series “Mary & George.” But for pop star Hayes Campbell in “The Idea of ​​You,” coming to Prime Video on May 2, Heartthrob status is both a blessing and the bane of his existence, stripping him of any privacy. Both characters, coincidentally, participate in romances from May to December.

bI respond to Hugh Grant very quickly. During our Zoom, Galitzine goes off on a tangent to discuss how Grant’s His career has taken a strange turn. Once a romantic lead, Grant now goes for villains and creeps. He reunited last year with “Paddington 2” director Paul King to play a fussy Oompa-Loompa in “Wonka.” And he “has become even more respected than he already was, which is great,” Galitzine says.

Are these the kind of elections Galitzine hopes to emulate? Maybe one day. He craves versatility and runs down a list of actors he admires: James McAvoy, Brad Pitt, Matt Dillon, Michael Pitt. “I’m so amazed by my contemporaries,” he adds, naming Barry Keoghan, Paul Mescal and Leo Woodall. His current star north might be Ryan Gosling, whose Oscar-nominated performance in “Barbie” underlined what his loyal fans have long known: Gosling can do drama, but he’s very good at comedy.

Galitzine can be too. She’s been acting for a decade (she appeared in the 2019 psychological horror series “Chambers,” the 2021 musical film “Cinderella,” and the 2022 romantic drama “Purple Hearts”), but broke out with “Red, White and Royal Blue.” ” from last summer. .” While he plays the straight man opposite co-star Taylor Zakhar Perez (not literally, as the film’s lively gay sex scenes make clear), playing Prince Henry still required a healthy dose of physical comedy.

You recently noticed that your projects tend to be published in pairs. “Red, White and Royal Blue” was released during the Hollywood actors and writers strikes around the same time as “Bottoms,” a gonzo comedy about lesbian high school students (Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott) who start a fight club. extracurricular to spend money. more time with the person she likes. Galitzine plays a soccer player who cheats on his girlfriend and constantly humiliates himself. Despite working on recent projects with Hathaway and Julianne Moore, her on-screen mother in “Mary and George,” she says she learned the most from “Bottoms” by leaning into her emotional nakedness.

“Nick was meant to be a fool,” says Sennott, who wrote the film with director Emma Seligman. But Galitzine admits that he had to overcome a considerable amount of anxiety to take his most ridiculous step.

“I think in a way that’s acting,” he says. “It’s about channeling fear in a productive way.” And if that sounds pretentious, she jokes, it’s because “we are, as actors, very stuck-up and pretentious.”

RBorn in the London borough of Hammersmith to an English father and Greek mother, Galitzine thought he might pursue rugby professionally until he injured his rotator cuff. He didn’t start acting until “late in my life,” meaning right out of high school. He was discovered after auditioning for a production of the musical “Spring Awakening” at the Edinburgh Fringe Festival in 2013.

About a decade later, she sings on stage again. this time on screen in “The Idea of ​​You” as Hayes Campbell, one of the five members of the fictional boy band August Moon. Hayes meets Solène Marchand (Hathaway) at a Coachella gathering, which the divorcee is attending with her teenage daughter; they start sneaking out after he stops by her Los Angeles art gallery. Screenwriters Jennifer Westfeldt and Michael Showalter, who also directed the film, adapted it from a 2017 novel by Robinne Lee, who he previously told Vogue that “this was never supposed to be a book about Harry Styles,” but rather “a story about a woman approaching 40 and reclaiming her sexuality and rediscovering herself.”

“For me, Hayes had to be obviously sexy and charming, and someone that the audience could fall in love with in the same way that Solène does,” Showalter says. “He had to have humility and a real person.” In other words, Hayes needed to come across as a 24-year-old single mother who would really want to date, be mature, and be grounded beneath her playful exterior.

“Nick could have chemistry with a lamp,” Hathaway says. “He’s very easy to connect with.”

Galitzine was interested in how Hayes handles the claustrophobia of fame (once their relationship hits the press, he and Solène face all kinds of hate online) and encourages Solène’s self-discovery. “I just feel, both in Hayes and in myself, this responsibility of support and alliance and partnership,” Galitzine says. “It has been a great pleasure to work with Annie. …I think we can all see the important [this film] It is for her too.”

Lately, he’s been trying to pick roles that he thinks “move the needle” in some way. He and Moore began filming “Mary & George” early last year, almost immediately after finishing “The Idea of ​​You.” The series also contrasts how a young man and an older woman navigate the world, albeit in 16th century England, when George Villiers infiltrates the king’s court at the behest of his scheming mother, Mary. He initially acts as a pawn in his scheme to improve the family’s rank, but over time learns to exploit King James (Tony Curran) for his own purposes. “He dominates a lot of people through sex,” Galitzine says of George, a fictional version of the real duke. “His sexuality liberates him in a powerful way.”

Galitzine, who is heterosexual, has played several characters who are not. “I never want to occupy a space that seems like it would be better played by someone who is queer,” she says. “To me, I saw these people as wonderfully textured human beings.” Even though “Mary & George” took place centuries ago, George is not ostracized for his queerness, nor is the king. The Duke may have additional motives, but the series still depicts their connection as authentic and their sexual encounters as tender and loving.

Creator DC Moore says he “fundamentally wanted this show to not be afraid of men’s bodies.” He credits the two actors for developing a relationship that served what Galitzine describes as their “shared responsibility to portray this relationship in an honest and compelling way.” The humor in “Mary & George” is sharp, sometimes cruel and often riddled with ahistorical F-bombs. But as George lies on the floor next to a stressed-out King James, his banter softens into the kind of everyday banter exchanged between two lifelong lovers. Galitzine and Curran improvised that bit of dialogue.

“On some level, as a writer, I should be furious,” Moore says jokingly. “But they are two actors interpreting intimacy.”

TOPerforming opposite stalwarts like Hathaway and Julianne Moore reminded Galitzine of her relative youth. “The people I work with still consider me very green and very young,” she says. It can be nice to feel like her career is just getting started, but also quite jarring. After all, she has been acting for 10 years. She doesn’t even remember who she played in that staging of “Spring Awakening.”

“Was it Moritz?” He wonders aloud, racking his brain. “My God, that seems like a lifetime ago.”

We return to the topic of your future aspirations. Sci-fi extravaganza? Absolutely. Stage performance? Mmm, no thanks. (“My English agents really want me to do theater, but I don’t know, not yet,” she says. “The last audition I did was ‘The Iceman Cometh,’ which Austin Butler ended up doing.”) He would love to do another project as outlandish as “Bottoms,” if not more so, and he’s been trying to be a voice actor for a couple of years now. “They don’t love me,” he laments. “But let’s express that.”

He doesn’t take it as a slight. About to turn 30, Galitzine defends some wisdom: “The closer we get to death, the less we give a damn.” Regardless, this is a difficult period to navigate, as it remains in the space between coming-of-age stories and strong leading roles. While he will probably play young and attractive, but interesting! – For the foreseeable future, he notes that most of his favorite actors now have “wonderful lines” on their faces. Not only do they sound wise, they look wise. He can’t wait to join them.

“It’s very exciting from a professional point of view, you know?” he says. “All these incredible roles start appearing in your 30s, 40s and 50s. “I feel like I’m on the verge of something exciting.”