R-rated The Great moment led Clint Eastwood to book Nicholas Hoult, says Pete Davidson
Getting to Clint Eastwood wasn't a straight shot for Nicholas Hoult — it included an R-rated stop on The Great, and the reason’s not what you think.
Clint Eastwood didn’t tap Nicholas Hoult for his legal thriller Juror #2 because of a steely courtroom monologue. According to Hoult and a very amused Pete Davidson, the director zeroed in after seeing a very NSFW moment from Hoult’s Hulu series The Great — a scene with absolutely nothing to do with a jury box.
The story came out when Hoult and his How to Rob a Bank co-star Davidson sat down for Complex’s GOAT Talk. As Hoult picked his character from The Great as his “greatest of all time” role, Davidson jumped in to connect the dots to Eastwood.
"That's also the role that got you the Clint Eastwood movie, "
Davidson said, as the two laughed about the unlikely casting pipeline from royal romp to sober courtroom drama. The contrast is part of the fun: The Great is an off-the-rails historical satire, while Eastwood’s Juror #2 is a contemporary, straight-ahead thriller.
Eastwood’s on-set nickname
Hoult also shared that Eastwood — who was 94 during production — greeted him on set with a running gag that harked back to that infamous Great scene. On Late Night with Seth Meyers, the Nosferatu star said the director had a very specific salute every morning.
"He would salute me in the morning and say Cap'n Lingus"
Both anecdotes — the casting curveball and the not-safe-for-daytime nickname — surfaced in recent appearances on Complex’s GOAT Talk and NBC’s Late Night with Seth Meyers.