‘Like my chest was going to explode’: Nicholas Hoult says Hollywood red carpets ‘terrify’ him

He’s been a Hollywood star since he was a child – but there’s a reason why Nicholas Hoult has kept a low profile.

He’s been a Hollywood star since he was a child – but there’s a reason why Nicholas Hoult has kept a low profile.

“I find [red carpets] absolutely terrifying,” the British actor says.

“If you measured my heartbeat in the car … I felt like my chest was going to explode.”

The Nosferatu star has been putting his “fear” on the line while promoting the Robert Eggers-directed horror film in which he stars alongside Lily-Rose Depp.

Asked how he finds the confidence to be himself in the public eye instead of a character, Hoult laughs: “Maybe I’ll create a persona for red carpets”.

“You’ll see me throughout the [Nosferatu press] tour and be like, ‘Nick!’ And I’ll be like, ‘Nick’s not here’.

“And I’m like waltzing up and down the red carpet.”

Red-y for his close-up! Nicholas Hoult attended the 2025 Golden Globes WWD Style Awards at Four Seasons Hotel in Los Angeles this week. Picture: Getty Images

Hoult – whose early roles spanned About a Boy and cult TV series Skins, before he found success as an adult in the X-Men franchise and Mad Max: Fury Road – says he is not driven by fame.

“If I look at [actors] I really adore, when I am watching them, I don’t know where they were that weekend or what they were eating for breakfast,” the 35-year-old says.

“It’s easier to escape and believe in whatever you’re watching. There’s also an element of – well, it’s nice when people do recognise your work or have seen it.

“You get to meet people and hopefully, they enjoy what you do, and that’s a privilege.

“But there’s also an element of trying to protect privacy and not being too visible everywhere – where people can watch you on screen and think, I believe that character! As opposed to being, ‘that’s so and so.’”

Nicholas Hoult, far right, with his Nosferatu co-stars including Lily-Rose Depp. Picture: Getty Images

‘You don’t want to get stagnant and do the same thing over and over again!’ Picture: Getty Images

Lily-Rose Depp co-stars with Nicholas Hoult in Nosferatu. Picture: AFP

As for how he chooses what roles he pursues, Hoult says it’s about asking himself a tough question.

“There are times where you want to say, am I the right person for this?” Hoult reflects.

“And then there’s something in your gut [that holds you back].

“There’s a connection that there’s something about this that I feel like I can bring something to it.

“You don’t want to get stagnant and do the same thing over and over again.”

Hoult is currently starring in the unsettling Eggers-directed gothic horror film, Nosferatu, based on the 1922 German silent film Nosferatu: A Symphony of Horror (to which Bram Stoker’s 1897 novel Dracula served as inspiration).

It tells the story of a vampire (Bill Skarsgard) who becomes obsessed with a young woman, Ellen Hutter (Depp), and her husband, Thomas Hutter (Hoult), leading to a reign of terror.

Nosferatu is in cinemas now. For more from Stellar, click here.

Originally published as ‘Like my chest was going to explode’: Nicholas Hoult says Hollywood red carpets ‘terrify’ him