Nicholas Hoult’s Blond Ambitions

LONDON — Do blonds really have more fun?

The actor Nicholas Hoult has his own set of blond ambitions — which include taking his platinum hairdo for a spin in Jaeger-LeCoultre’s new campaign “The Hour Before” for the Reverso watch.

“I’m on my ‘Blond Ambition’ [tour] right now, so it feels apt,” said the actor, wearing a vintage T-shirt from Madonna’s “Blond Ambition World Tour 90” that the actor Pete Davidson bought for him as a gift. “He’s a great vintage thrift shopper.”

The Jaeger-LeCoultre campaign details the final moments of preparation before going on stage or set, which Hoult has been doing from the age of 5 when he made his screen debut in “Intimate Relations.”

“It’s about those final few moments alone when you’ve put in the work and you’ve prepared as much as you can. I would call it a hyper focus in some regard, it’s comparable to being an athlete, right before going out onto the pitch to play the game,” he said.

To get into character, Hoult is habitual in his method and preparation — he also credits the creative team around him. He avoids being superstitious.

“Part of it is the makeup and costume team transforming you to make you feel very different when you step onto the set and the design of that transporting you. I tend to do a last run over the dialog and lines — and sometimes it’s listening to music,” he said.

Before starring in James Gunn’s “Superman,” he was given the score for his character Lex Luthor, a super bald villain, a few months in advance.

Hoult listened to the score pretty much every day in an ice bath and when he was driving.

“I listened to that song thousands of times because it gives me a sense of the emotion and the feelings of what that character is going through and what that will appear to be on the screen. James would play it on set through loudspeakers during certain moments of the filming. It was really special to me because I’d already put so much time, thought and associated into the music. When it played, it triggered lots of things mentally,” he added.

Hoult added his own touch to his character by reaching out to Jaeger-LeCoultre and asking for watches as he felt it was a brand Lex Luthor would wear.

“Lex is someone who wants the best of everything and is so intelligent, so he would appreciate this piece of art history and engineering,” he said. 

The actor has been working with the Richemont-owned brand since 2017, when they were sponsoring the Venice Film Festival. He’s now an ambassador for Jaeger-LeCoultre.

“I sometimes method dress,” Hoult joked.

On the press run for “Superman,” he has been working with his stylist Jason Bolden on some sleek looks to go with his blond hair.

He’s worn Saint Laurent, Bottega Veneta, Prada, Burberry, Jacquemus, Celine and Tom Ford.

“It’s part practicality and creativity,” Hoult said, referring to the head-to-toe white Celine look, where he wrapped a gray sweater across his chest. “It was surprisingly hot in New York and I didn’t want to be sweating around.”

Naturally, each look has been accompanied by a Jaeger-LeCoultre watch.

Hoult’s favorite watch from the brand is a Reverso with a steel monoface with a brown leather strap. The watch has sentimental value to him as he’s engraved it with his son’s initials on the back.

“I see watches as a kind of family heirlooms, something that I will pass down to my son and then hopefully he will pass down too. It’s a piece of our family that will be treasured hopefully and make you feel closer to your parents or family,” he said.

Hoult is quite the horologist, able to recite the history and specifics of a watch just as well as his lines.

He admits that a nice watch makes him “feel good” and keeps him on time. “I’m a punctual person and I respect other people’s time and don’t want to be late or be a hold-up — that definitely makes me stressed,” he added.

In recent years, Hoult has taken up roles that happen to accidentally be stylish on screen.

There’s Peter III of Russia in “The Great” with gilded jackets and fur coats; Thomas Hutter’s refined gentleman’s wardrobe from the 1800s in “Nosferatu,” and Lex Luthor’s perfectly tailored suits in “Superman.”

Hoult’s next project, “How to Rob a Bank,” is a far cry from glamorous costumes, but he will be stepping into some rebellious shoes opposite Davidson and Zoë Kravitz.

The film follows bank robbers who are documenting their heists on social media.

“They’re a group of bank robbers who have been hurt by the system and through that have been radicalized into a Robin Hood-esque group of bank robbers that are trying to create a social movement, but also giving back to people in need. It feels different and we’re adding something [new to the genre],” Hoult said, listing “The Italian Job” and “Inside Man” as his favorite heist films.

Playing a rebel has come naturally for the actor, but this one is a departure from characters such as the heartthrob teenager Tony Stonem in “Skins” or the mischievous Marcus Brewer in “About a Boy.”

“When I’m looking at playing villains or bad people, it’s always that moral scale of trying to look at and understand what’s driving them. Yes, he robs banks, is robbing banks bad? Yes, I suppose so,” Hoult said. “But when you look at his life, his drive and what’s pushed him into it, it’s very easy to understand what it is and why he’s doing those things. One of the things the movie is exploring is that gray area between right and wrong.”

One thing is for sure about the upcoming film — Hoult will be blond.