Nicholas Hoult has been confirmed as joining the cast of the new Harry Potter series as Gilderoy Lockhart – but how much do you know about the actor?
We haven’t seen the first season of the hugely anticipated – if perhaps somewhat controversial – new take on the Harry Potter saga, but we are already getting cast announcements for the second season.
Deadline broke the news that Nicholas Hoult – famous for playing Lex Luthor in Superman, among others – is to play Gilderoy Lockhart, the dashing but arrogant defence against the dark arts teacher at Hogwarts, in season two of the HBO show.
Nicholas is the latest big name to join the new series, which will dedicate a season to each of the seven books in the main Harry Potter story.
But how much do you know about Nicholas Hoult? Here are some facts that you might not know about him.
Nicholas made his screen debut aged 6
Nicholas got into acting at an early age and made his screen debut at the tender age of 6, in the 1996 movie Intimate Relations, a blacky comic drama that also starred Julie Walters.
He also appeared in several TV programmes in his childhood, before his breakthrough role in the 2002 comedy-drama About a Boy.
He had an early passion for ballet
As well as his love for acting, when he was a boy Nicholas also had a serious interest in ballet. He had some talent for it too, and performed as a dancer with several high profile companies in various regional productions. He also danced in productions of Swan Lake and The Nutcracker with the English National Ballet. However, he moved away from ballet at the age of 12 when he focused more on acting.
He was hit by a bus when a stunt went wrong
Like many actors, Nicholas likes to, on occasion, do his own stunts. But an incident in 2003, when he was 13 and filming the show Keen Eddie, nearly ended in tragedy. Nicholas was tied to a chair and suspended 20 feet in the air for a boarding school sequence. The plan was for a double-decker bus to drive towards him and stop inches away. However, in the event, the bus’ brakes locked up and it didn’t stop in time, and it hit his leg as he stuck his foot out, and the result was he swung like a pendulum against it. Remarkably, Nicholas walked away from the incident with only minor cuts and bruises.
He is passionate about many sports
Away from the camera, Nicholas loves to watch and play various sports. For instance, he has a long-standing love of basketball – he once played for the Reading Rockets, a team in the English Basketball League. He also trains in jiu-jitsu and boxing.
Nicholas is also something of a petrolhead, and loves Formula One and Moto GP – the top class of motorbike racing – and has been spotted at various events over the years. He also likes to get behind the wheel, and has competed in various Ferrari Challenge events, including winning the ‘Track Attack’ event at Watkins Glen in a Farrari 296 GTB in 2024.
Nicholas also likes to play golf in his free time. Speaking of which…
He once gave golf advice dressed as Beast from X-Men
Nicholas does sometimes like to play practical jokes, and one of his best came during the filming of one of the X-Men movies, where he played the hairy blue mutant Hank McCoy, aka Beast. In an interview with Top Gear, Nicholas admitted that, while in full Beast costume, he ran on a golf course near to where they were filming, gave some presumably stunned golfers advice to improve their swing, than ran off again, with no explanation.
