某日,朋友和我侃起有哪些没有“长残”的童星,我脱口而出:尼古拉斯·霍尔特。从昔日的小胖墩长成今天的花美男,幸好其没在毒品酒精中沉沦而一蹶不振。他的星途看似不错,既可以凭借外貌在《皮囊》这样的青春偶像剧中聚敛人气,又可以靠着演技在《单身男子》这样的独立小制作中玩一把深沉,还可以在《诸神之战》这样的票房大片中跑跑龙套,混个脸熟,可俗可雅,他颇具“万人迷”的潜质。
看到尼古拉斯·霍尔特,我蓦地想起大仲马在《三个火枪手》里面对达塔尼昂的描写,说他是青年,他又似乎显得太年轻;要说是个孩子罢,他又似乎有些老了。就像此刻的霍尔特,身上褪去了少年郎特有的青涩与幼稚,但又没沾染上成年人的圆滑与世故。21岁,是个美好的年龄,处在这个年龄的人大多是没有成家立业的压力,因此他们可以去拼、去闯而不用瞻前顾后。对于霍尔特将来能否继续“星光灿烂”我不想太过笃定,现在我只想捕捉他此时此刻身上闪烁的光芒,以此来纪念我那些遗失的美好。 ——Mac
文字难度：★★☆
Oh no. Interview, uh oh. I always panic about these things.” Nicholas Hoult does look genuinely 1)apprehensive, which is annoying because he’s been perfectly at ease until now.
噢,不。采访啊,呃,噢。一直以来我都很怕接受采访的。”尼古拉斯·霍尔特说,他看上去真的是惴惴不安,之前他还非常放松的,这还真让人有点郁闷。
I say 2)reassuring things, but he looks unconvinced. Why do interviews make him panic? He frowns and seems to think hard.“3)Dunno,” he finally offers, unhelpfully. Hoult’s reaction is 4)sensible, really. No one wants to be 5)crammed on a sofa and asked annoying questions about how he feels and what he thinks, but it’s surprising that an actor this experienced hasn’t found a way to deal with the experience by now. Though he is just 21, he’s worked in film and TV for years. He was spotted in a theatre audience aged three by a director who suggested to Hoult’s mother that if he could concentrate on a play at that age then he could probably be in one. He’s been acting ever since, becoming properly famous at 12 as 6)geeky schoolboy Marcus opposite 7)Hugh Grant in the 2002 adaptation of 8)About a Boy. He’s co-starred with 9)Nicolas Cage, and then became a star in his own right at 17, thanks to Channel 4’s drugs-and-sex-10)drenched teen drama Skins. His portrayal of heartless 11)heartthrob Tony Stonem, full of 12)callous 13)swagger and vulnerability, was the show’s standout performance. Aside from that, he was lucky enough to participate in 14)A Single Man, alongside 15)Colin Firth and 16)Julianne Moore.
我说了些话来安抚他,但是这似乎说服不了他。为什么采访会让他那么恐慌?他皱着眉头,像是很认真地思考了一番。“不知道,”他最后回答说,一脸无助。霍尔特的反应实属人之常情。没有人喜欢挤坐在沙发上,受到一些旨在窥探其所思所想的讨厌问题轰炸,但是对于这样一位经验这么丰富的演员来说,至今对采访这桩小事仍然无法处理好,这还真让人感到不可思议。虽然他年仅21,但是已经在影视界浸淫多年。3岁那年,一名导演在影院的观众席里相中了他,对他妈妈建议说,如果他在那个年龄就能专注看电影,那他很可能自己就能演一部电影。从此他开始了自己的演艺生涯,12岁开始就小有名气,那时他与休·格兰特联袂出演由小说改编、在2002年上映的电影《单亲插班生》,扮演一个招人讨厌的小学生马库斯。他曾与大明星尼古拉斯·凯奇合演,然后出演英国电视台第四频道的充斥着毒品和性爱的青春电视剧《皮囊》,凭着在该剧中的努力,17岁的他成为一个明星人物。在《皮囊》里,他扮演的无情帅哥托尼·斯托姆,冷酷无情又妄自尊大,却又内心脆弱,是剧中的一个亮点。除此之外,他还有幸与科林·费斯和朱丽安·摩尔联手出演电影《单身男子》。
Chris Weitz, who co-directed About a Boy and produced A Single Man, thinks there are several reasons for Hoult’s transformation from child actor to star: “17)Arbitrarily, he turned from the 18)shrimp who came up to my 19)armpit to the 20)hunk who towers above me, and while his looks have matured, they’ve remained 21)inherently interesting and unconventional. On his own, though, he’s shown that the naturalness of his performance as a 12-year-old was not a 22)fluke. He’s willing to do a tremendous amount of work to get a performance right.”
曾参与执导《单亲插班生》并监制了《单身男子》的克里斯·韦兹认为,霍尔特从一个儿童演员晋升为当今明星的原因有几个:“很自然地,他从一个高度只及我腋下的小鬼头长成一个比我还高得多的大块头,他的外貌变得成熟了,但他与众不同,由内散发着魅力。尽管如此,他本人也表示,他能把那个12岁的男孩演得如此自然并非出于侥幸。他愿意多下苦功来把角色演到最好。”
Hoult hated the attention Skins brought. Once, after his car was surrounded by people staring in, tapping on the windows, while he waited for his little sister outside her school, it even made him doubt he 23)was cut out for acting. “I’d always had two lives before then—acting and the real world—and it all bled together. But it’s interesting how quickly people forget. They look at me now, think they might know me, but then just walk on, which is brilliant.”
霍尔特厌恶《皮囊》使他受到高度关注。有一次,他在他妹妹的学校门外等她时,他的小汽车被人们团团围住,大家都往车内张望,不断地敲他的车窗,这时他甚至怀疑他是否真有表演天赋。“出演《皮囊》之前我一直有两种生活——戏中表演和真实生活——现在两者混在一起了。然而有趣的是,人们非常健忘。他们看着我,好像认出我一样,然后又一声不吭走开了,可是这对我来说好极了。”
Actually, being cool seems a low priority for a 21-year-old who could presumably go to any club opening or party he chose. He prefers the pub with friends. “It’s awkward going to parties with people you don’t know, especially when they think they know you. It was difficult after Skins because people thought I was my character, but as you’ve probably figured out by now, I’m not very interesting…Oh this is all going horribly wrong.”
事实上,保持低调似乎不是21岁年轻小伙子为人做事的首选,大家觉得他总该爱去夜店开幕式或是派对吧?但是他更喜欢和自己的朋友去些小酒吧。“我觉得参加那些满是陌生人的派对让人很不自在,尤其是当那些人还自以为了解你。自从拍了《皮囊》之后,人们都将我等同于剧中我扮演的角色,挺让我为难的,但现在你可能也明白到我私下其实不是一个那么有趣的人……噢,大家想象的一切都太离谱了。”
It’s not going horribly right. I wouldn’t mind if he didn’t seem so unhappy; it would be easier if he was rude—but he isn’t. Well, not really. He 24)enthuses about Clash of the Titans, in which he has a supporting role as soldier Eusebius, saying that everyone looked after him on set because he was the youngest. I ask if he ever gets tired of always being the youngest in a film cast. “Am I looking forward to being older? Not really. I’m not scared of growing up, but it just happens, doesn’t it?”
访问跟我想象中的不太相符。他没太显出一副不快的样子,这我当然不介意;但如果他高傲无礼就更好办,可是他并没有那样。呃,完全没有不礼貌。一提到《诸神之 战》——他扮演里面的一个配角士兵优西比乌——他就兴头十足地说道,因为他是这么多演员中最年轻的,所以片场中每个人都对他照顾有加。我问他,是否曾因为自己总是演员中最年轻的一个而感到不耐烦。“我期盼变得年长点吗?也不是啦。我不怕成长,人总是要长大的,不是吗?”
What else is he looking forward to? He thinks for a while before nominating the Miss World competition.
那么他还期盼别的什么呢?他想了想,说“世界小姐选美大赛”。
Really? I ask, what’s your favourite round—swimwear or talent? “Talent, probably. Though wearing swimwear is a talent, too…oh I don’t know. I’m looking forward to traveling, doing interesting stuff. Strengthening ties with people I already know and love. I’m serious—but it sounds so 25)cheesy. I think these things, but I just can’t say them out loud. But I mean it, I really do.”
真的吗?我问,你最喜欢哪一个比赛环节,泳装秀还是才艺表演?“可能是才艺表演吧。虽然泳装秀也算是才艺之一吧……噢,我不知道。我最想的还是去旅行,做些有趣的事情。和那些我认识和深爱的人巩固关系。我是说真的——但是听上去还蛮俗的。我想着这些事情,但就是无法大声说出口。但是我是认真的,真的很认真。”
