The 'Mary & George' star speaks to ET about his new series with Julianne Moore.
Nicholas Galitzine is making a career of starring in royal titles, and he's not mad about it! Galitzine and his Mary & George co-star, Julianne Moore, chatted with ET's Denny Directo about their upcoming Starz series, during which the 29-year-old reacted to the growing trend on his resume.
Having starred as Prince Robert in 2021's Cinderella, Prince Henry in Red, White & Royal Blue, and now portraying George Villiers, the secret lover of the former King of Scotland James VI and I in Mary & George, it's clear that Hollywood sees the royal potential in Galitzine.
"It's not even me flocking to it; the industry knows me as that guy," Galitzine tells ET of his continued casting in aristocratic roles. "It gets put on my desk!"
To Galitzine's credit, each of his characters has been vastly different from one another, which the actor says has been the most fun in portraying them. And George Villiers is possibly the most distinct of them all.
"The three characters, despite having that [in common], feel very distinctly different, so it's completely unlike anyone I have played before," he said of taking on the 1st Duke of Buckingham. "So it's sort of a no-brainer wanting to play him."
Mary & George is based on Benjamin Woolley's 2017 non-fiction book, The King's Assassin, and inspired by the true story of Mary Villiers and her son, George. The seven-part series depicts Mary's (Moore) molding of her beautiful and charismatic son, George (Galitzine), to seduce King James VI of Scotland and I of England and become his all-powerful lover.
"Through scheming, the pair rose from humble beginnings to become the richest, most titled and influential players the English court had ever seen, and the King's most trusted advisors. All this at a time when England's place on the world stage was under threat from a Spanish invasion and rioters were taking to the streets to denounce the King," reads the show's official description.
Moore, 63, has nothing but good things to share about her experience taking on the role of the ambitiously ruthless Countess of Buckingham. "It was so much fun, it was so wonderfully written and so vivid and so human and so entertaining," she gushes to ET. "She's a character who has almost no subtext, it's all text, you know? She's very, very active, she says what she's thinking, she acts on what she's thinking, and she even voices her frustration."
"There was something freeing about finding someone who doesn't really care what anybody else thinks," Moore adds. "She's there to survive, you know, so she'll kind of do anything. She'll do anything she needs to do for her survival and her children's survival."
The show's description describes Mary as "always the smartest person in the room," noting that the mother of two "was never able to realize her full potential until she spots an opportunity to take advantage of the King's voracious appetite for fine wine, fine company and fine men."
Galitzine's George is described as "naïvely beautiful and charismatic" and a pawn as he's "thrust into the spotlight as his mother masterminds their pursuit of the King."
Much of George's part of the plan is seducing the King to follow his every whim, which involves a healthy amount of romantic scenes between Galitzine and Tony Curran.
"I think it takes a lot of preparation in terms of understanding what the scenes follow and how they tell the story," Galitzine said of recreating those intimate moments for the small screen. "For George, it's his currency, it's the way he operates in the world. I'm so proud of the work that we did because everything feels incredibly purposeful and incredibly powerful. I think it helped me discover George's power in a way, which was really exciting."
Meanwhile, fans are excited for a much different role of Galitzine's -- his portrayal of Hayes Campbell in Prime Video's The Idea of You.
In the movie, based on Robinne Lee's popular novel of the same name, Anne Hathaway plays Solène, a 40-year-old divorced mother who is forced to chaperone her teen daughter's trip to the Coachella Music Festival. After a chance encounter with Hayes, the 24-year-old lead singer of the most popular boy band in the world, Solène gets wrapped up in a whirlwind romance.
The film also stars Ella Rubin, Reid Scott, Annie Mumolo, Perry Mattfeld, Jordan Aaron Hall, Jaiden Anthony, Raymond Cham Jr, Viktor White and Dakota Adan.
"I'm so excited for The Idea of You, you know, again it's portraying something that we're not really used to seeing on screen which is an age-gap love between a young man and an older women," Galitzine tells ET about the upcoming release. "I'm really thrilled that it's coming out and Anne is such an incredible actress... Very excited for people to watch it!"
The Idea of You premieres May 2 on Prime Video. Mary & George premieres April 5 on Starz.
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