What’s it like turning down Tom Cruise? Just ask Nicholas Hoult. In a new interview with The Guardian, the “Mad Max: Fury Road” and “The Menu” star revealed that Cruise personally called him to join the “Mission: Impossible” franchise for its two-part finale, which will kick off this summer with the seventh installment, “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One.” Hoult accepted the role, which reports claimed was a huge one as it was the finale’s main villain.
Hoult was cast in “Mission: Impossible 7” in January 2020, but by May 2020 he was exiting the movie and being replaced by Esai Morales. According to Hoult, his contractual obligation to his Hulu period comedy “The Great” got in the way of him joining the “Mission: Impossible” franchise. Perhaps it wouldn’t have been such a gut-punch had Hoult not been coming off two rejections from other major Hollywood franchises.
“I screen-tested for ‘Batman’ and didn’t get it,” Hoult said. “Screen-tested for ‘Top Gun,’ didn’t get it. Then I got the call from Tom Cruise: ‘Hey, how about “Mission Impossible?”‘ Ok. Got it. Then I had to drop out because I was already attached to do some more of ‘The Great.’”
Hoult lost out on “The Batman,” “Top Gun: Maverick” and “Mission: Impossible 7” all in a row. “The Batman” director Matt Reeves selected Robert Pattinson for his Batman/Bruce Wayne, and the two are set to go into production on “The Batman: Part II” later this year. The first film earned $770 million at the worldwide box office.
While Hoult did not disclose which “Top Gun: Maverick” role he auditioned for, it was most likely Bradley “Rooster” Bradshaw (Miles Teller) or Jake “Hangman” Seresin (Glen Powell). While he didn’t get the role, Cruise clearly liked what he saw in Hoult and offered him “Mission: Impossible 7” instead. “Maverick” went on to become of the top-grossing movies of all time with $1.49 billion worldwide.
Hoult currently stars opposite Nicolas Cage in the Dracula action comedy “Renfield,” now playing in theaters nationwide from Universal Pictures.