Hoult stars in Eastwood’s latest directorial effort, ‘Juror #2’
Nicholas Hoult’s call to star in Clint Eastwood new film came “out of the blue” — but it wasn’t a “mistake” like he initially imagined.
Speaking with PEOPLE at the Oct. 27 premiere of Eastwood’s latest directorial project Juror #2 at the AFI Film Festival, Hoult revealed that he was “truly shocked” that the 94-year-old Oscar winner wanted him to star in the film.
“It came out the blue where I got a call from my agent saying, ‘Clint Eastwood wants you to do his next movie.’ And I was truly shocked,” Hoult, 34, says.
“I was like, ‘Surely there’s been a mix-up. This has to be a mistake. How does Clint Eastwood know who I am?’ And then they were like, ‘No, no mistake. He does know who you are and he wants you to be in the movie.'”
In Juror #2, Hoult stars as “family man” Justin Kemp, who serves as a a juror in a “high-profile murder trial” before he “finds himself struggling with a serious moral dilemma, one he could use to sway the jury verdict and potentially convict — or free — the accused killer,” per a synopsis.
As Hoult recalls, he and Eastwood spoke over the phone during the film’s development, and he remembered being “completely blown away.” Eastwood also wasn’t shy when it came to cracking a few jokes during their early talks.
“First of all, I was on the phone with Clint Eastwood and I said, ‘I love the script.’ And he said, ‘If you like it so much, I guess I’ll have to read it’ and went off laughing. I knew from that moment we were going to have a fantastic time,” Hoult adds. “He had a cracking sense of humor, he’s so kind. He creates a wonderful atmosphere. And he’s a true icon of cinema.”
“He is cinema in many ways, as an actor, the performances he’s given, the films he’s directed,” he says. “It’s just magic to be on set with him and [to have] learned from him. So I feel very, very lucky.”
Hoult adds that the director “has such an ease with how he creates and the trust he puts in people and the trust he puts in the audience.”
“And I think that’s truly special and that’s something that I’ll always take on in this experience,” he says.
When asked what he noticed of Eastwood on set, Hoult revealed that ultimately his “ease” stood out to him. “Easy come, easy go,” he said. “His allowance for things, his acceptance of good and bad. And also when I could hear him munching Cheez-Its, just off of set.”
Upon the release of the film’s trailer earlier this month, Eastwood told PEOPLE in a statement that the movie is one he “would want to see” that he thinks “a lot of people would enjoy.”
“It looks at the gray areas between the black and white of everyday circumstances and makes you decide for yourself,” he said, adding that it started with a “good script” from Jonathan Abrams and a “solid story that I thought would make a good picture.”
“It really intrigues me when a story places a character in a moral dilemma, and this is one that we could all imagine ourselves in or relate to in some way,” Eastwood said.
Rounding out the film’s cast with Hoult is Toni Collette, Zoey Deutch, Kiefer Sutherland, Gabriel Basso, Leslie Bibb, Chris Messina, J. K. Simmons and Francesca Eastwood. According to Eastwood, the cast and crew shared “all the laughs” on set for what marks his first directorial effort since 2021’s Cry Macho.
“We had a really great group of actors, led by Nicholas Hoult, who I was really impressed with — he is what I think a movie star is,” Eastwood said. “Everyone was very professional, came prepared and ready to work, but more than that they came and we laughed every day. Whether I’m directing or acting, I think it’s important to enjoy the work, and we did.”
Juror #2 will release in select theaters Nov. 1.