When Nicholas Galitzine arrived on the set of Julia Jackman’s “100 Nights of Hero,” he had to check his inhibitions at the door.
“They were like, ‘Yeah, you’re going to be naked, covered in blood, dragging a stag through the castle,’” the 31-year-old English actor says, recalling the first scene he filmed for the subverted fairy tale. “I was like, ‘Of course.’”
Besides, after a string of massive streaming hits — “Purple Hearts,” “Red, White & Royal Blue” and “The Idea of You” — put Galitzine on the map in a big way, he was longing to take a risk, something like his turn in the 2023 black comedy “Bottoms.”
“I just had this sense that, look, maybe this movie wouldn’t be in every single theater in the country or around the world, but it was going to be very culturally significant and a bit of a cult classic,” Galitzine says of Emma Seligman’s raunchy queer-teen movie, in which he got to flex his funny bone as a ridiculous jock. “And I felt exactly the same way when I read ‘100 Nights.’”
Jackman wrote Galitzine a letter to sweeten the deal, but he didn’t even need to open it. “As soon as I read the script, I was fully in,” he says. “It was so visceral, and Julia has a kind of Lanthimos style to the way that she likes to shoot her movies, so it was just a no-brainer.” He was first on board the project, with Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, Charli xcx, Richard E. Grant and Felicity Jones eventually rounding out the starry cast. And despite having just booked the biggest — and most demanding — role of his career as He-Man in the upcoming superhero movie “Masters of the Universe,” Galitzine carved out 10 days to shoot “100 Nights of Hero” at an imposing National Trust-protected estate in the East of England.
Nicholas Galitzine in “100 Nights of Hero.”
Matt Towers
Written and directed by Jackman, the IFC fantasy film — debuting in theaters on Dec. 5 — is a
twist on the Middle Eastern folktale “One Thousand and One Nights,” now set in a dystopian world where women are killed if they cannot produce an heir. When the chaste Cherry (Monroe) is left alone by her husband for 100 days in a test of her fidelity, she becomes entangled in a love triangle with his seductive friend Manfred (Galitzine) and her devoted maid Hero (Corrin). As Manfred tries to win Cherry’s attention, Hero passes the time by telling stories — even though the very act is outlawed.
Manfred is buff, dumb and “morally gray,” as Galitzine puts it, courting Cherry with his physical prowess rather than romance or wit. Since he was also bulking for He-Man, his physique fit the bill. “I’m like eating loads of food, and I feel so puffy and big,” he recalls. “I suppose it was an education because this is what you have to do if you want to be a working actor. And really, I’m blessed to be able to do a tiny indie movie that I feel incredibly passionate about and then juggle it with this juggernaut. It probably did add to the insanity of Manfred — I think I was going out of my mind.”
But Galitzine soon eased into Jackman’s fast paced, boots-on-the-ground shooting style. “Everything felt almost clandestine,” he says. “It’s an interesting exercise in acting. Don’t think about it; be improvisational; just go for it. With how my career has gone, leading these really amazing but big-budget movies, it felt very refreshing and challenging.”
Galitzine teases he has more indie films on the docket — “things that have been announced; things that haven’t been announced” — but first, he’ll start shooting the “Red, White and Royal Blue” sequel in the new year and gear up for He-Man’s debut in June.
“Without saying too much, all signs are very positive. I had maybe the most fulfilling experience of my career,” he says of “Masters of the Universe.” “It felt huge, but there was a really human quality which is not unlike the way Julia likes to make movies. I’m really excited for the world to see that one, because it feels very different to movies of its kind.”
