VIDEO INTERVIEW: 'I was terrified' Nicholas Hoult on filming Mad Max: Fury Road
'They crashed huge trucks into me' grins Nicholas Hoult as he talks about his death-defying Mad Max: Fury Road adventure with Tom Hardy and Charlize Theron.
Nicholas Hoult
The actor has come a very long way since the awkward kid in About A Boy.
With a shaved head, a pale, scarred face and crazy, staring eyes he is almost unrecognisable as the road warrior Nux in Mad Max: Fury Road.
The film is a spectacular triumph, masterfully engineered by the original Mad Max creator and director, George Miller, and Hoult's delight at being part of such a sensational project is evident – even if he risked life and limb while he was doing it.
“What a day, what a lovely day!” yells the unhinged Nux during one explosive scene, but working in the burning desert amidst exploding trucks is hardly most people’s idea of a walk in the park.
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Nicholas Hoult and Director George Miller
“You can prepare loads and rehearse and then you get thrown onto a set and you’re inside this car with trucks flying past you and fire and your adrenalin’s pumping and you just go for it and hope for the best,” the 25-year-old grins.
Nicholas Hoult talks about working on Mad Max: Fury Road
Unsurprisingly, Hoult didn’t escape the punishing shoot unscathed.
“It can be scary. You see trucks crashing into you. I got a little bit of whiplash one day,’ he says.
“The stunt guys were like, ‘Ok we’re gonna crash this truck into you’ and was like. ‘Great, go for it.’
“Suddenly, I turned around and saw this huge truck barreling into me and it was like, ‘Boom!’
“My neck as absolutely killing me. I was like, ‘Jesus, this is a tough film.’”
Then again, the Mad Max films have never been for wimps.
Mel Gibson first strode across the big screen as the titular post-apocalyptic warrior in 1979.
36 years later, Brit Hardman Tom Hardy has stepped into the role, alongside an equally fierce Charlize Theron as the impressively-named Imperator Furiosa.
Mad Max- Fury Road Official Trailer – Warner Bros. UK
The film itself is a hell of a ride, but we won’t be jumping into a car with any of them anytime soon.
Mad Max: Fury Road is out now in cinemas