Skins star hopes neo-Nazi gang leader role in Jude Law movie ‘sheds light’ on racist unrest-Tori Brazier at Venice Film Festival-Entertainment – Metro

Skins star Nicolas Hoult is a world away from teenager Tony Stonem in his new role as a real-life US neo-Nazi gang leader (Picture: Channel 4)

Nicholas Hoult has addressed the ‘horrible’ UK race riots while premiering his new film, in which he plays a neo-Nazi gang leader, revealing he hopes it will ‘shed light’ on recent anti-immigration racist unrest – ultimately ‘preventing’ it.

The British star, 34, who has been embraced by Hollywood since his days playing Tony on Skins from 2007 to 2008, was at Venice Film Festival on Saturday with co-star and producer Jude Law to present The Order.

Having since appeared in The Favourite, Renfield, X-Men: First Class and The Menu in recent years, Hoult’s latest role is his darkest yet.

He embodies real-life American white supremacist Robert Jay Mathews, who led a militia engaged in armed robbery, murder, counterfeiting, conspiracy and racketeering in 1980s Washington, with the ultimate goal of raising a fighting force to declare war on the US government.

For The Order – also the name of the group Mathews founded in 1983 – their ultimate mission was to establish an all-white homeland in the Pacific Northwest.        

It’s hard not to draw chilling parallels with what unfolded in the UK from July 30 – August 5, when a group of racist, hard-right and anti-immigration protests and riots sprung up in the UK, following false information being spread as to the ethnicity of the perpetrator of mass stabbings at a Taylor Swift dance class for kids in Southport.

The actor said the film, which takes place in the 1980s, was ‘relevant’ today still, after recent events including the UK race riots (Picture: Joel C Ryan/Invision/AP)

When asked by Metro.co.uk at The Order’s Venice press conference if those recent events had made Hoult look at his new movie in a different way, he acknowledged that although it was an ‘American story’ and one set 40 years ago, it was still ‘relevant today’.

‘It’s also a global thing at the moment, which is just a horrible situation,’ he added.

‘Hopefully the film, perhaps if people see it shedding more light on how these sorts of events occur and the people that are instigating them, can help prevent it happening anymore in the future.’

Hoult, who has been cast as Lex Luthor in the upcoming Superman movie from DC and will appear in Nosferatu, also revealed that he had to ‘delve into a lot of horrible, dark stuff that wasn’t enjoyable’ to prepare himself to play a neo-Nazi.

Hoult shot to fame as Tony on Skins in 2007 but has since gone on to appear in Hollywood movies like The Favourite (Picture: Channel 4)

As ‘dark’ Bob Mathews, he is a chilling but charming presence in The Order (Picture: Michelle Faye)

Jude Law leads a team of law enforcement officials out to trap Bob after a spate of crimes organised by him to fund a racist and supremacist militia (Picture: Chris Large)

He credited director Justin Kurzel and writer Zach Baylin with helping him through, admitting: ‘I don’t know really what else to stay about it to be honest with you, apart from it wasn’t very nice and it was part of the job on this one.’

Law, 51, plays FBI agent Terry Husk, who sets out to prove that a pattern in recent robberies, counterfeiting and armoured car heists terrorising communities in the area is not the work of a traditional organized crime unit, but rather a radical group with charismatic leader Mathews.

Husk is an amalgamation of real-life law enforcement officers who worked on bringing in Mathews, who it’s referenced in the film has previously worked on KKK and mob stings.

‘What was interesting to me was playing someone who thought that the battle was done,’ observed Law. ‘He represents an awful lot of us, meaning he felt that his hardest work was behind him and suddenly he had possibly his biggest task yet ahead.

Law’s FBI Agent Terry Husk is an ‘amalgamation’ of real officers (Picture: AFP via Getty Images)

The Oscar nominee also said that The Order’s relevance ‘speaks for itself’ (Picture: Venice Film Festival)

‘If felt a little bit like a lot of us now maybe, where you could have said 10 years ago that perhaps the world was in a slightly different state – [but] in fact we’ve still got a lot of work to do.’

The two-time Oscar nominee, who has recently played Henry VIII in Firebrand, was also aware of his new film’s relevance to the racially and politically charged times at the moment, pointing out that ‘sadly, the relevance speaks for itself’.

‘It felt like a piece of work that needed to be made now,’ the Talented Me Ripley star added. ‘It’s always interesting finding a piece from the past that has some relevant relationship to the present day.’

Director Kurzel also called it ‘extraordinary’ that they had found ‘a piece of writing of events from the past that has some sort of perspective that can have a conversation with today’s politics’

‘That’s a rare gem. So we felt that there was a lot that was being said about today,’ he shared.

Director Justin Kurzel called The Order a ‘rare gem’ as its past events can ‘have a conversation with today’s politics’ (Picture: Michelle Faye)

The Order was inspired by a piece of neo-Nazi propaganda called The Turner Diaries, written by white nationalist group National Alliance founder William Luther Pierce under the pen-name Andrew Macdonald.

It has been at the heart of many white supremacist terrorist attacks and crimes, including the 1996 Oklahoma City bombings, and has also been linked to the January 6 insurrection.

Tye Sheridan, Jurnee Smollett, Saltburn actress Alison Oliver, Marc Maron and Odessa Young also feature in the cast.

Tye Sheridan and Jurnee Smollettalso star as law enforcement officials (Picture: Daniele Venturelli/WireImage)

Hoult also revealed that he and Law ‘didn’t even speak for the first four of five weeks filming’ on The Order.

‘The crew really enjoyed this idea of keeping us as different forces. The first time we spoke was in the first scene where we interact,’ the actor explained.

He also shared that Kurzel gave each of them tasks to do to prepare for the roles, with Law told to trail Hoult for a day, like his FBI agent would do.

However, Hoult wasn’t informed of this prior to Venice, exclaiming: ‘I just found out on the boat here!’

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