Posted in: Fox, Fox, Movies | Tagged: Beast, family guy, hank mccoy, jennifer lawrence, kelsey grammer, mystique, nicholas hoult, Rebecca Romijn, seth macfarlane, x-men
X-Men: Nicholas Hoult's Bizarre Audition Involved Family Guy
One of Nicholas Hoult's most iconic roles is as the younger version of Hank McCoy/Beast in the X-Men: First Class films. Kelsey Grammer initially played the older version in X-Men: The Last Stand (2006). Hoult spoke to GQ in a career retrospective reflecting on his most iconic roles. When he auditioned for Beast in 2011, First Class director Matthew Vaughn requested if he can do an impression of another Fox-owned character. "Matthew Vaughn asked me to do a couple of takes in an American accent as you kind of saw the character. But then also do a take doing an impression of Stewie Griffin from Family Guy," he said. Stewie is a toddler and the youngest member of the family with the mind of an evil supergenius on the long-running animated series voiced by creator Seth MacFarlane. "I had watched a lot of Family Guy in my teen years growing up," Hoult continued. "So I was like, 'OK, I think I've got a pretty good impression of Stewie Griffin lined up. 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."
X-Men: The Exhaustive Makeup Process of a Blue Mutant
Hoult also talked about the long process of applying the Beast makeup. "I loved the prosthetics at first. It started off in the first movie taking three to four hours to go on," he said. "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." Beast wasn't the only blue mutant. Mystique appeared in all the films, first played by Rebecca Romijn in the original trilogy later by Jennifer Lawrence in the First Class films. When it came to bridging both casts, Grammer made a cameo in the final scene of X-Men: Days of Future Past when Wolverine (Hugh Jackman) awoke in the present. Romijn made a similar appearance in First Class as Lawrence's Mystique shifted to her "older" self. Check out Hoult's interview below.