Nicholas Hoult Gives Rare Comments on Fatherhood, Talks ‘Mission: Impossible 7’ (Exclusive)

The actor tells ET that he's 'very grateful to be getting this time' at home.

Nicholas Hoult isn't one to talk about his personal life, but he did chat with ET's Katie Krause about what life has been like for him since he started quarantining due to the coronavirus pandemic.

It was reported in April 2018 that the 30-year-old actor and Bryana Holly welcomed a son together, and while they've yet to reveal the boy's name, Hoult did tell ET that there's been much more time for family nowadays.

"It's horrible circumstances for it to happen under but I'm very grateful to be getting this time," Hoult shared. "Normally when we're shooting, we're spending 14, 15 hours a day at work. ...You don't get to see a whole lot of your family."

He added, "This has been a really nice time just to be at home and get back to playing with cards and all sorts of stuff."

As for how fatherhood has changed him, Hoult said it's made him more "playful."

"I guess obviously it's a evolution in your life," he explained. "I think it's given me more perspective on things and a chance to to escape work even more and put that into context. ...I'm loving it. It's fun. And also you kind of live your childhood through them in many ways and it brings back lots of great memories. Its a fun journey to be on."

Hoult added that though fatherhood hasn't affected his work yet, he is "probably watching more cartoon and kid shows."

"So maybe I'm going to start trying that," he quipped.

When quarantine mandates were starting to be put in place, Hoult said he and Elle Fanning had just finished up filming The Great, a genre-bending, anti-historical story about the rise of Catherine the Great in 18th-century Russia. He was also working on Mission: Impossible 7 at the same time, but production on that film was halted in Italy at the end of February due to COVID-19.

As for when they'll resume shooting the M:I sequel, Hoult admitted, "Everything is kind of [on] hold at the moment until the situation in the world kind of gets figured out. [We're] just kind of hanging out waiting."

While Hoult played coy about disclosing his role in the movie, he did gush over what a privilege it was to be joining the wildly popular film franchise.

"It's a franchise that I've loved since a kid. There are scenes in that first movie that are imprinted on my mind's eye forever because I was blown away by them," he said of the first Mission: Impossible before praising the leading man of the movies, Tom Cruise. "I'm obviously a fan of Tom and [director] Chris McQuarrie and what they do and their approach. They're so dedicated to their craft and created the best movies possible."

Hoult admitted that working with Cruise and McQuarrie has been a "real learning curve" for him. "I love doing the stunt stuff, fight training, action car stunt driving and all that stuff. It's a really fun experience," he mused.  

While the latest Mission: Impossible movie might be on hold, Hoult's fans can still check him and Fanning out in The Great. "I'm not a fan of period dramas and such. I find them a little bit dry and dull [but The Great] felt, [it was] just completely different to all those," Hoult said of the series. "I just loved the script. It made me chuckle. It was great fun to be a part of it."

Episodes of The Great will begin streaming May 15 on Hulu.

Here's what Fanning told ET about playing Catherine the Great in the series, and what it was like working with her older sister, Dakota Fanning, in The Nightingale.

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