5 hours ago
Just How Super is David Corenswet's 'Superman?' The Hero Even Made Lex Luthor Feel 'Warm and Safe' by Holding Him!
Kilian Melloy READ TIME: 2 MIN.
David Corenswet, the latest actor to don Superman's cape, is such a big, strong hero that even the actor playing his nemesis, Lex Luthor, in the latest "Superman" movie raves about feeling "warm and safe" in his embrace.
Appearing on "The Armchair Expert" podcast with Dax Shepard, Nicholas Hoult – famed for his work on "The Great" and "Nosferatu" – talked about getting his "Superman" co-star to hold him in his arms.
The cuddle wasn't work-related; rather, as Film Updates noted in an X post, it came about after Hoult had a conversation with his wife about how nice it is to be held by someone bigger.
"I was chatting to my wife and she was like, 'It's so nice to be held by someone bigger than you,'" the post quoted Hoult saying on the podcast. Added Hoult's wife: "You don't really get that, do you?.... No one's really big enough to hold you."
Hoult, who stands over 6'2", might have a hard time finding someone to fit the bill. But his wife had a solution to offer: "David could hold you," Hoult quoted her saying.
Corenswet, at 6'4", towers above Hoult. Asked by Shepard what he thought of Corenswet's physique, Hoult exclaimed, "Brilliant!"
Though the two play enemies on the screen, Hoult asked for the intimate moment from his co-star, who agreed to it.
That's when Hoult got what his wife was talking about. "He held me," Hoult recounted, "and it felt warm and safe."
It wasn't just the muscle that Corenswet put on that lent the embrace its super powers. Hoult opined that his screen partner "embodies everything that you'd hope for that character to be."
Gay Twitter celebrated Hoult's comments.
In the conversation, Hoult revealed that he had initially auditioned to play The Man of Steel, but as he read the script he wondered if the role of Lex Luthor – played in past films by actors like Gene Hackman and Jesse Eisenberg – might not be a better fit. Director James Gunn evidently agreed.
Watch Hoult's discussion of Corenswet's physique and what it was like to be held by him below (at the 58:30 mark).
Kilian Melloy serves as EDGE Media Network's Associate Arts Editor and Staff Contributor. His professional memberships include the National Lesbian & Gay Journalists Association, the Boston Online Film Critics Association, The Gay and Lesbian Entertainment Critics Association, and the Boston Theater Critics Association's Elliot Norton Awards Committee.
