When he's not busy being furry in the X-Men movies, Nicholas Hoult has been filming the upcoming biopic Tolkien, which sees him playing The Lord of the Rings author JRR Tolkien.
As you've been reading that last sentence in your head, you've either pronounced his surname as either Tol-kin or Tol-keen (or something completely different because you're weird).
Hoult should be an expert on the subject by now, so when Digital Spy got some time with the actor at WonderCon, we had to ask him.
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"I really didn't know much about him," he said. "I didn't know how to pronounce his name.
"I was a fan and I loved his work, but I was saying Tol-kin and then I read the script and I go, 'Wow, it's pronounced Tol-keen'. All this time and I'd got it wrong.
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"It was a steep learning curve. His love of language, his knowledge of philology, and also his dedication to his art, but also to love and friendships, it was just incredible."
The Dark Phoenix actor also talked about the difficulty of trying to build his interpretation of Tolkien, stating: "The interesting thing was that there's not video or recording of him in the year of his life when I'm playing him.
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"I watched videos and recordings of him later, but that's a different energy by the time he's in his 70s as opposed to when I was playing him. It was more catching the essence of the man in those moments than trying to copy mannerisms."
Tolkien is due to be released in cinemas on May 3 in the UK, before following a week later in the US on May 10.
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Joe Anderton is a freelance news writer at Digital Spy, having worked there since 2016. In his time, he's covered a host of live events and interviewed celebrities big and small. A big fan of TV and movies both mainstream and obscure, Joe also enjoys video games and in particular PlayStation. Joe currently does not use Twitter, but he only ever used it to tell people to watch the film Help! I'm a Fish.















