The Idea of You’s Nicholas Galitzine is having a wild year

Nicholas Galitzine has had a wild 12 months.

Until July last year, Galitzine had been working steadily in little-seen projects such as the supernatural horror series Chambers or the straight-to-digital sequel to The Craft. But then Red, White and Royal Blue happened and his profile skyrocketed.

Casting directors must have known something was in the air surrounding Galitzine because the British actor had already booked his next projects before the world watched him fall into a cake in Red, White and Royal Blue.

There was the goofy comedic role in the unhinged movie Bottoms and co-lead opposite Julianne Moore in the historical dramedy series Mary & George.

But The Idea of You will eclipse all of that.

The film stars Anne Hathaway as Solene, a 40-year-old divorced mum who meets Galitzine’s character, Hayes, a 24-year-old international popstar in a boy band. Frothy and seductive, the rom-com is a fantasy on almost every level.

When the trailer was released, it broke records as the most watched trailer for a streaming movie when it clocked up 125 million views across all social platforms, according to WaveMetrix. To call it anticipated is an understatement.

Partially based on Harry Styles, Galitzine’s character is insanely famous. Teens scream in his presence and forget their own names if actually called upon to speak to him.

A visit to Solene’s art gallery attracts paparazzi and swooning fans and the pair make their getaway in her suburban mum car, him lowering his seat flat so as to not be seen.

Despite his increased fame, Galitzine says he has yet to contend with that level of idol worship. While that doesn’t mean things haven’t changed for him, his experience is different to that of his onscreen alter ego.

“Hayes’ life is so different to mine in so many ways,” he tells The Nightly. “The thing that has most prepared me for this wildness is probably all of the part-time work that I did for the first years of my career.

“This is not happening to me when I’m 14, as it did for Hayes. I’m 29 now and I have a great family and a great group of friends, and normality is very important to me. There are aspects to this job that are very heightened – you’re flying around the world and you’re meeting all of these wonderful people and you’re getting an incredible opportunity.”

But the years spent as a jobbing actor has helped ground him when everything seems to be taking off.

While Galitzine’s two most famous roles to date have been as the romantic lead, his ambitions stretch far beyond the confines of that genre. In an interview with The Washington Post, Hathaway said Galitzine has so much more to show the world than what we’ve seen so far.

He has spent the past few years more conscious of curating his work – which, of course, becomes possible when more people know who you are.

“There’s still so much I haven’t done just yet, and (Hathaway, who he calls “Annie”) has been one of the greatest advocates for me in terms of my own capabilities and pushing myself.

“She is one of those people who have managed to do all of the genre work, the character work. She’s such a hard worker, she’s so passionate about our roles and I think that was one of the things that we really connected on.

“I am so ready to surprise her and surprise everyone else. There are already a few things in the pipeline that I’m very excited about and to me as a creative, I’m always most nourished when I am pushing myself to do very, very different things.”

That all sounds like very serious “actorly” guff but Galitzine says it with not an arrogant self-assurance but with the air of someone not quite believing he’s in a position to choose his roles.

He wants to make an action movie – “I sort of have a background in sports and martial arts” – and he would love to do sci-fi – “I grew up watching Star Wars and I’m a big fan of Alien” – or even a western – “I like to think I’m half-decent on a horse”.

And, of course, more comedy, even though before he made Bottoms the genre was “really, really scary for me before I did it, and I just had such a good time doing it”.

With The Idea of You bound to boost his already rising star, Galitzine is due for another wild 12 months to come.

The Idea of You is streaming on Amazon Prime Video from May 2