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Hugh Grant's 'About a Boy' Sidekick Grows Into a Beastly X-Man


by Joe Lynch · July 9, 2010

If one of the new faces in the upcoming "X-Men" prequel looks strangely familiar, it's because you've probably seen Nicholas Hoult before. Best known for playing the eccentric kid mentored by Hugh Grant in "About a Boy"-the youngster with the eerie, big blue eyes and the terrible bowl cut-Hoult has since grown up to resemble a British Zac Efron. Even better, Hoult is no longer playing the type of character who gets bullied by others-he plays a superhero with raw animal strength in the new "X-Men" movie.

The 20-year-old British actor will play Beast in "X-Men: First Class," an upcoming prequel that focuses on the famed mutant fighting force in their early, rough-and-tumble years. For those who hear "comics" and think "standup" instead of graphic novels, Beast is the big, blue man-animal with a scholarly mind, brought to vivid life in by Kelsey Grammer in "X-Men: The Last Stand."

The "X-Men" prequel-reboot has a slew of other hunky Europeans taking over familiar roles: Scotsman James McAvoy ("Atonement") will play Professor Xavier, while Germany's Michael Fassbender will play Magneto, Prof X's best friend/arch enemy. The titular character from "Kick-Ass" (Aaron Johnson) will don Cyclops' laser-blasting visor, and the babe from "She's Out of My League" (Alice Eve) is set to portray Emma Frost, a dry-witted, telepathic mutant who has just barely appeared in the "X-Men" films thus far.

But surely Nicholas Hoult's leap from the socially inept, lovable loner in "About a Boy" to a furry blue superhero is the weirdest acting transformation we'll see in the upcoming "X-Men" film. Regardless, it should be interesting to see what Hoult brings to the role, considering that Beast is one of comic-dom's most interesting characters: a man whose imposing physical strength is in direct contrast to his learned, quiet intellectualism.

That juxtaposition was perfectly suited for the man known to us for years as Dr. Frasier Crane, but Hoult seems to have the credentials to match the difficult role. He recently appeared as the soft-spoken college student of Colin Firth in the indie flick "A Single Man," but he also excelled as a sword-wielding warrior in this summer's "Clash of the Titans." With that in mind, Hoult just might be the perfect choice to play the scholarly mutant.

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