Nicholas Hoult Opens Up About Life as a Dad
It’s been more than 15 years since Nicholas Hoult starred in About a Boy alongside Hugh Grant, but the 29-year-old actor has yet to live the film down. Even though he’s appeared in a film every single year since 1996, nothing has ever succeeded in driving home the fact that Hoult is no longer a boy than last year’s news that he’s now officially a dad, having welcomed a baby with his girlfriend, a model named Bryana Holly, what’s now nine months ago.
But unlike the many other celebrities who welcomed new additions to their families last year, Hoult and Holly have refrained from sharing photos of, or even simply gushing about, their newborn. At least until Hoult spoke with the Evening Standard for a story that published on Thursday.
While also touching on his film The Favourite, which was just nominated for a host of Academy Awards, Hoult’s most notable quotes, then, are about his private life. He and Holly, after all, didn’t even share the news of their baby themselves; instead, an unnamed “source” spoke withPeople. Hoult’s representative declined to comment at the time. They also didn’t mention Holly’s pregnancy on Instagram, and Holly, at least, still seems hesitant to open up, seeing as she made her account private shortly after the Standard‘s story was published.
Bryana Holly at a screening of *Americons* in Los Angeles, 2015.
Now that he’s confirmed the news, Hoult has also confirmed that he, like practically all new parents, is currently exhausted. “The levels of tiredness are extreme. No one warns you about it!,” he said, before switching gears to the benefits of fatherhood. “But the level of love that comes with it outweighs everything,” he continued. “It’s phenomenal. I’m loving it. And it evolves all the time. They change so much, every day is different. It fills you up as a human completely.” Being a parent has also given him a newfound appreciation for time, hence why he talk[s] very quickly in interviews now,” he explained, adding, “because I need to get home to them.”
For the time being, Hoult (and presumably Holly) are sticking to they/them pronouns when discussing their baby, having decided not to share their gender with the public. His motivation, however, don’t seem to be the same as that of Kate Hudson, who’s taking a “genderless” approach to raising her child until she knows how they identify, Hoult seems to be more concerned with simply maintaining his family’s privacy. “Someone will find out soon enough and that’s fine, no big deal,” he said. “But for now it’s my own precious little thing and I’m keeping it.”
Hoult did, however, convey he has something of an open mind with regard to gender norms when asked if growing up in a household of mostly women has made in “in touch with his feminine side,” to which he responded with the very fair question, “What does that mean?” Still, he said that at least according to his definition, he “hopes” that he is: “Hopefully being in touch with your feminine side makes you more understanding of what it’s like to be female. I think we could all try and have a little more empathy now and then.”
As for what’s up next, Hoult will soon appear in Dark Phoenix, the latest installment of X-Men alongside his ex, Jennifer Lawrence, though he deflected a question about potential awkwardness on set by comparing the film’s cast as a “big family” that’s “really [grown] up together” over the years, just like he and his costars in Skins. But “fatherhood is the main thing,” he insisted, driving his point home by adding: “Yeah. That. I’m going to do a hell of a lot of that.”
Related: Kate Hudson Says She’s Raising Her Child Rani Rose With a “Genderless” Approach
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