Dark Phoenix marked the last time the X-Men cast will likely portray their roles before the inevitable MCU reboot. It was also Nicholas Hoult’s final appearance as Hank McCoy/Beast, a role he originated in X-Men: First Class. And according to Hoult, he might have Family Guy creator Seth MacFarlane to thank for landing the part in the first place.
GQ recently invited Hoult to be reflect on his biggest roles. Hoult shared an interesting anecdote about his audition for X-Men: First Class director Matthew Vaughn. For some reason, Vaughn wanted Hoult to channel one of MacFarlane’s most famous characters during his screen test.
“Matthew Vaughn asked me to do a couple of takes in an American accent as you kind of saw the character,” said Hoult. “But then also do a take doing an impression of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy. I had watched a lot of Family Guy in my teen years growing up, so I was like, ‘OK, I think I’ve got a pretty good impression of Stewie Griffin lined up. And so I did a whole version of the take as Stewie Griffin and sent it off. So maybe that helped me get the part? I don’t know.”
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Hoult actually wasn’t the first actor that Vaughn and 20th Century Fox lined up to play Beast in First Class. Benjamin Walker (who later joined the Marvel Universe in season 3 of Jessica Jones) was initially cast in the role, but he dropped out to star in the Broadway musical Bloody Bloody Andrew Jackson.
Hoult also spoke about his experience in the makeup chair to play Beast; which gradually took less time as the series wore on.
“I loved the prosthetics at first,” admitted Hoult. “It started off in the first movie taking three to four hours to go on. By the last movie we did, it was only about two hours to get on … but it was still hot and claustrophobic to work in. So, that made it tough at times.”
You can watch GQ’s full sit-down with Hoult below, then tell us what you think in the comment section!
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