Nicholas Galitzine: ​“I was eating 5000 calories a day and lifting weights for three hours”

“Cheeky. Open. Warm.”

That, if push comes to shove, is how Nicholas Galitzine would describe himself.

It isn’t likely you’ll have those words in mind while watching the actor’s mega-muscled character, He-Man, in the upcoming summer blockbuster Masters of the Universe, whose trailer has amassed 36 million views in 11 days.

It’s a far cry from queer fantasia and graphic novel adaptation 100 Nights of Hero, written and directed by Julia Jackman, which Galitzine stars in alongside Emma Corrin, Maika Monroe, Charli xcx and lots of fantastic hats. In this medieval-shaped yarn with its narrative roots in the Middle Eastern folktale One Thousand and One Nights, the actor plays Manfred, a sword-swinging himbo who’s challenged by his friend Jerome (Amir El-Masry) to seduce Jerome’s wife Cherry (Monroe) over the next 100 days, while her devoted maidservant Hero (Corrin) does her best to distract Manfred by spinning story after story.

Manfred is willing to have a go, blithely unaware that Cherry and Hero are more than a match for his overtures. As he says to Jerome, his taste in women is ​“the usual: beautiful, chaste, good at listening, mending socks, interested in maps, falconry, chess, et cetera, but obviously not excessively good at any of those things”.

“He just doesn’t get it,” says Galitzine, cheerfully, of his character. ​“The hilarious thing is, he’s not unlike a lot of men who live in this [fictional] world. This is how he’s raised. But he just has no concept, really, of what a woman is. [But] I tried to never view him just as a villain. Because I do think he’s a product of his environment.”

When we speak, Galitzine has just just started filming Red, White & Royal Wedding, the sequel to 2023 romcom Red, White & Royal Blue, aka the regal Heated Rivalry that broke the internet. What’s he looking forward to watching? The Moment, his 100 Nights of Hero co-star Charli’s satirical A24 mockumentary about how terrible it is to be the hottest pop star in the world. It’s brilliant, and though Galitzine hasn’t seen it yet, he’s all in. ​“I saw a clip with Alexander Skarsgård [playing a demanding concert-movie director], when he’s saying: ​‘Have you heard of light-up wristbands?’” Galitzine laughs, very much amused by Skarsgård’s performance. ​“It’s just annoying – he’s so good looking and funny. It pisses me off.” Pisses Galitzine off? How does he think it makes the rest of us feel?

Hi, Nick. How much fun was it to lean into ultra-heroism of Masters of the Universe?

Pretty bonkers, to be honest – especially going, as you say, from Manfred to He-Man and [his earthbound alter-ego] Adam. It’s hard sometimes to cut off a character that you’ve just worked on and really create a separation. And luckily, I had a long prep period for He-Man, so I was able to do that.

What did that look like on a day-to-day basis?

You have to trust that, when all the work is done, you’ll feel like a hero at the end of the day. When you’re bulking and you feel a bit husky and you haven’t got the tan on and everything, you’ve got to trust the process. That you’re going to be where you need to be.

The thing that I found most challenging about the transformation to that, and the prep for that, was that for a portion of the movie, I’m Adam. Who is a lot more meek and uncertain and fragile. I said to the producers and Travis [Knight] the director: ​“I want to keep getting bigger and bigger and bigger. Just tell me when I need to stop.”

And they were like: ​“Well, essentially we need you to play two characters in this. So you can’t. For this [first] movie at least, we need you to hit this version of the character that can be the ultra-hero – but can also be the fragile boy.”

So that was the challenging thing. If we’re lucky enough to further explore the character, it’ll be simpler based on where we leave him… without giving too much away.

When you were bulking, what did your weekly gym and diet routine look like?

I had to overcome a lot of obstacles because I had some not-so-great advice for a period of time. At one point I was eating 5000 calories a day and lifting weights for three hours a day – on top of an hour-and-a-half stunt rehearsal. And then the rest of all of the shit that you need to do. So it was pretty arduous.

There was a point where, first of all, you’re watching your body change so rapidly. Which is weird. You don’t fit in anything anymore. You don’t really recognise yourself. You don’t recognise your face. People would come in and out of the gym to do their session while I was still doing my one session. Which was ridiculous. You’d be like: ​“Oh, hi… and bye. I’m still here pumping bicep curls and smashing chicken and broccoli!”

But it’s back to normal for you now?

Yeah! Look: it’s the difficult thing as an actor. I finished playing He-Man, and I went to work on this World War Two movie called The Mosquito Bowl, and I had about three, four weeks in between. The director was like: ​“This is set in the 1940s. You can’t look the way you look now.” So I was like: ​“OK, I guess I’m gonna stop lifting weights and cut all my protein and just let it all go shit!”

Which is really depressing, by the way! It’s very depressing how long it takes to put on the muscle and how easily it comes off. But, like I said, if we’re lucky enough to get the opportunity to explore He-Man again, it’s gonna be the same process – but hopefully with a little bit more knowledge and better advice and wisdom now! I really can’t understand, still to this day, how Christian Bale did The Batman and The Machinist [body transformations]. Or how Jake Gyllenhaal did The Night Crawler and Southpaw thing. Those are real body transformations. What I’ve had to do is actually a lot less arduous.

You’ve just started filming Red, White & Royal Wedding. The last time we spoke, for Mary & George, you talked of how Robbie Taylor Hunt, your intimacy coordinator for that TV show, also worked on Red, White & Royal Blue. How busy is Robbie going to be on this sequel?

Ha, yeah, I love Robbie! Mary & George put to shame any of the intimacy of anything else I’ve ever done before. Now I’m like a seasoned 50-year-old porn star, with a cigarette in hand, who’s like: ​“Sweetie, I know what I’m doing…” That’s how I feel now.

But Robbie’s so great. He’s an expert at trying to create a visual language for these characters and their love for each other. And how to pull the audience back in after four years of time difference and how the relationship evolved. He is my go-to guy whenever I need intimacy stuff.

Also, for me, it’s very interesting: there’s been a lot of talk about Gen Z not wanting to see sex in film as much. But I really feel, if it serves the narrative in some way, it’s a really useful tool. And it’s a very vulnerable thing for both actors and audiences to experience. So I don’t know what I would do without Robbie, to be honest. We’re like a Happy Meal these days, you know?

Talking about sex on-screen and your previous co-stars: you worked with Rachel Sennott and Ayo Edebiri on Bottoms. What did you think of I Love LA?

First of all, I thought Ayo’s cameo was really great. But one thing I’ll say about Rachel, even when we filmed Bottoms, which was right before we did the first Red, White & Royal Blue, I really got a sense of: this is someone who is entirely authentic, knows who they are as a creative and what they want to do, and is extremely hard working. And to see her helm this thing, and be such an originator and have her finger on the pulse, culturally…

Nowadays, we have this very reactive approach to media – ​“Oh, what’s popular right now? Who’s the popular musician? Let me find someone who can do that. What movie did well? Let’s just do another version of that.” But Rachel is someone who is original.

Both Rachel and Ayo, I hope I get the chance to work with them again. Because I almost felt like I wasn’t ready for them when we did Bottoms. It was my first comedy, and they had been doing stand-up for years. I almost want a do-over, in a way, because I didn’t appreciate how brilliant they were at the time.

You’re an Arsenal fan, as is Anne Hathaway, who you starred in The Idea of You. Have you caught up

Oh, man! Well, we’ve been struggling in the group chat recently because of the fucking Manchester United result. Really put a dampener on it. Funnily enough, I watched us get trounced by United and then got food poisoning in the same night. That was a pretty bad Sunday for me.

Look, man: with me and Anne and the rest of the Hathaways in the group chat, we’re all crossing our fingers, praying we don’t bottle it. We believe in the boys. We believe in Arteta. This year’s the fucking year, man!

What’s your phone screensaver?

My phone screensaver is me and my missus. I’m a good boyfriend.

Last book you couldn’t put down?

It was Yuval Noah Harari’s Homo Deus – the sequel to Sapiens, which is a very foreboding look at where we’re going to end up as a species.

Your ultimate hangover cure?

Well, I don’t drink anymore, so joke’s on everyone else who does drink.

Harry Styles’ comeback single or Arctic Monkeys’ comeback single?

Arctic Monkeys. Oh, man, Mardy Bum, all of that lot back in the day. Arctic Monkeys is really the sound of my teenage years. When I look back at pictures of myself in Adidas windbreakers with split eyebrows and the most horrendous style you’ve ever seen – Arctic Monkeys are playing to those images. I will always, always listen to those albums.

Can you leave us with some words to live by?

One foot in front of the other. It’s as generic as they come. But really, it’s the mantra that’s got me through my career. I’m a chronic overthinker, and I tend to view the mountain before I view the step in front of me. And it can send me a little bit haywire. So just take it as it comes. One foot in front of the other. Don’t think too far down the line. Try and be present. Yeah, that’s all I’ve got.

100 Nights of Hero is in cinemas now