Nicholas Hoult was certain someone had made a mistake.
Clint Eastwood wanted to talk to him about starring his new film, a slow burn legal thriller about a normal guy faced with an extraordinary moral dilemma. Surely Eastwood meant someone else, he thought. But soon enough they were chatting on the phone about “Juror #2,” opening in theaters Friday.
“I was so nervous,” the British actor said. “I remember saying to him, “I really like the script.” I was so eager to please.”
For Eastwood’s comeback, Hoult slipped into a pitch-perfect impersonation of his gravelly voice: “If you like it so much, I guess I’ll have to read it.”
Suddenly Hoult was laughing. The tension was broken.
“I was like, wow this guy’s cool,” he said. “He’s got a great sense of humor and we’re going to get along.”
Though there may be a healthy amount of English self-deprecation in the story, the spirit of it isn’t unique to Hoult. Eastwood, …