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Buzz Feed
5 days ago
- Entertainment
- Buzz Feed
Nicholas Hoult On Looking "Inbred," Viral Interview
Nicholas Hoult was just 11 years old when he first found fame as Hugh Grant's young costar in the 2002 hit movie About A Boy. Since then, his career has flourished, with Nicholas also being known for his performance as Tony Stonem in the gritty British series Skins, as well as a whole bunch of popular movies like Warm Bodies and The Menu. Nick has also joined some huge franchises, including Mad Max and X-Men. Most recently, he has garnered huge acclaim for his performance as villain Lex Luthor in the latest Superman movie. And throughout his career, the star has been no stranger to fans thirsting over him — but a recently resurfaced 2023 interview suggests that he hasn't let this attention go to his head... In fact, Nick had a straight-up bizarre response to a radio host asking him about his good looks, and how left-field his answer was has led to the actor going pretty viral on X. In an interview with Hits radio, Nick was asked: 'How does it feel, in life, being such a beautiful person?'The star was clearly taken aback by this question and blushed as he laughed and thanked the interviewer for the compliment. He then said: 'That's weird. I read something recently, I did a show called The Great, I play the emperor of Russia in that, and I saw a comment of someone on Twitter that said: 'He looks like just the right amount of inbred to be a royal.'' 'And so I don't think I'm conventionally very handsome or anything,' Nick went on. 'I don't have the perks of being handsome because I look more inbred.' Needless to say, people can't get enough of this response, with one X user sharing a video of the interview alongside the caption: 'this is how I take compliments btw.' The tweet has already been seen over a million times, and has racked up thousands of likes, replies, and reply asked: 'Nicholas Hoult is one of my very few male celebrity crushes and he thinks he looks inbred?!''Wdym Nicholas Hoult doesn't think he is handsome????????' somebody else joked: 'I've been saying he's hot since he was in skins what more does he need.'While one more reasoned: 'He doesn't look inbred he's just English.'
Yahoo
25-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Yahoo
‘Eat the rich' — Why horror films are taking aim at the ultra-wealthy
This story contains spoilers about 'Ready or Not' and 'The Menu.' When Amazon founder Jeff Bezos and fiancée Lauren Sánchez held their lavish three-day wedding celebration in Venice recently, it wasn't just a party — it was a spectacle of wealth, reportedly costing between US$47 million and US$56 million. Critics highlighted the environmental toll of such an event on the fragile, flood-prone city, while protesters took to the streets to condemn the wedding as a tone-deaf symbol of oligarchical wealth at a time when many can't afford to pay rent, let alone rent an island. The excessive show of opulence felt like the opening of a horror film, and lately, that's exactly what horror has been giving us. In films like Ready or Not (2019) and The Menu (2022), the rich aren't simply out of touch; they're portrayed as predators, criminals or even monsters. Read more: These 'eat-the-rich' films channel widespread anxieties about the current socioeconomic climate and increasing disillusionment with capitalist systems. In a world where the wealthy and powerful often seem to act with impunity, these films expose upper-class immorality and entitlement, and offer revenge fantasies where those normally crushed by the system fight back or burn it all down. Horror takes aim at the wealthy Originally a quote from social theorist Jean-Jacques Rousseau during the French Revolution, 'eat the rich' has re-emerged in recent years in public protests and on social media in response to increasing socioeconomic inequality. In cinema, eat-the-rich films often use grotesque hyperbole or satire to reveal and critique capitalist systems and the behaviours of the wealthy elite. Film scholar Robin Wood argues that horror films enact a return of what is repressed by dominant bourgeois — that is, capitalist — ideology, typically embodied by the figure of the monster. He cites The Texas Chain Saw Massacre (1974), a classic example of anti-capitalist sentiment in horror that depicts Leatherface (Gunnar Hansen) and his working-class family as monstrous victims of the 1970s industrial collapse. Rather than accept repression, they return as cannibalistic monsters, making visible the brutality of capitalist systems that exploit and degrade people like obsolete commodities. But in eat-the-rich horror, it is the wealthy themselves who become the monsters. The locus of repression becomes their privilege, which is often built on exploitation, inequality and invisible or normalized forms of harm. These films render these abstract systems tangible by making the elite's monstrosity visible, literal and grotesque. Revenge horror for the 99 per cent Recent horror films are increasingly using genre conventions to critique wealth, privilege and the systems that sustain them. Ready or Not turns the rich into bloodthirsty monsters who maintain their fortune through satanic rituals and human sacrifice. Grace (Samara Weaving) marries into the Le Domas family, board game magnates who initiate new family members with a deadly game of hide-and-seek. She must survive until dawn while her new in-laws hunt her down to fulfil a demonic pact. The film critiques the idea of inherited wealth as something earned or honourable, combining humour and horror to reflect anxieties about class entrenchment and the moral decay of the elite. The Le Domases are monstrous not only for their violence, but for how casually they justify it. When several maids are accidentally killed in the chaos, they react with self-pity, indifferent to who must be sacrificed to maintain their wealth. In The Menu, the rich are portrayed as monstrous not through physical violence, but through their moral failings — like financial crimes and infidelity — and their hollow consumption of culture. Celebrity chef Julian Slowik (Ralph Fiennes) lures wealthy foodies to his exclusive island restaurant, using food as a weaponized form of art to expose guests' hypocrisy and misdeeds. In one scene, guests are served tortillas laser-printed with incriminating images, such as banking records and evidence of fraudulent activity. The film criticizes consumption in an industry where food is no longer a source of enjoyment or sustenance, but a status symbol for the elite to display their wealth and taste. Why these films are striking a nerve now It's no surprise that audiences are turning to horror to make sense of systems that feel increasingly bleak and inescapable. In Canada, the cost of living continues to outpace wages, housing affordability remains an issue for many, while grocery prices are a source of horror in their own right. A university degree, once considered a reliable path to stability, no longer guarantees the financial security of a salaried job. Many Canadians now rely on gig economy jobs as supplementary income. Meanwhile, the wealth gap is increasing and obscene displays of wealth — like a multi-million-dollar wedding — can feel disconnected, even offensive, to people experiencing financial precarity. Eat-the-rich films tap into this collective sense of injustice, transforming economic and social anxieties into a cathartic spectacle where ultra-wealthy villains are held accountable for their actions. At the end of Ready or Not, the members of the Le Domas family explode one by one and their mansion burns down. In The Menu, the guests are dressed up like s'mores and immolated. In both films, fire serves as a symbolic cleansing of the wealthy, their power and the systems that protect them. More than that, these films provide someone to root for: working-class protagonists who are targeted by the elite but ultimately survive. Former foster child Grace fights her way through a pack of murderous millionaires, while escort Margot/Erin (Anya Taylor-Joy) is spared when she rejects the pretentiousness of fine dining and orders a humble cheeseburger instead. In this way, horror becomes a form of narrative resistance, illustrating class rage through characters who refuse to be consumed by the systems trying to oppress them. While inequality and exploitation persist in reality, eat-the-rich films offer escape, and even justice, on screen. This article is republished from The Conversation, a nonprofit, independent news organisation bringing you facts and trustworthy analysis to help you make sense of our complex world. It was written by: Heather Roberts, Queen's University, Ontario Read more: From HAL 9000 to M3GAN: what film's evil robots tell us about contemporary tech fears Jordan Peele's Us: black horror movies and the American nightmare 6 reasons why people enjoy horror movies Heather Roberts does not work for, consult, own shares in or receive funding from any company or organisation that would benefit from this article, and has disclosed no relevant affiliations beyond their academic appointment.
Spectator
20-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Spectator
How to fix MasterChef
In retrospect, as has so often been the case with my attempts at Delia's thrice-baked goat's cheese soufflé, the question was not so much when MasterChef was going to collapse, but how. The warning signs were there. Not only in 2001 when Lloyd Grosman, Britain's answer to Paul Newman (in pasta sauce endorsement terms if not acting), flounced off the show because, so far as I understand the dispute, a revamp dictated that contestants all use the same ingredient. But also in 2018, when now disgraced judges Gregg Wallace and John Torode managed to unify the whole of Malaysia in affront. For which feat, whatever their later sins, I salute them. It was episode 13 of series 14 and Malaysian-born contestant Zaleha Olpin presented her beloved childhood favourite chicken rendang recipe, served with a side of nasi lemak, only for Wallace to complain the chicken was not crispy enough and for Torode to call the dish a mistake. Typical Malaysian response? 'As a Malaysian, if I could, I would personally go to the show and rendang their head,' wrote Jin Wee in the Star, a Malaysian newspaper, adding superbly: 'Uncultured swine, doesn't know variety of cuisine and claims to be MasterChef?' As anyone who does know their rendang would tell the judges, its chicken isn't meant to be crispy. A former Malaysian premier complained Wallace had confused his nation's cuisine with KFC. The only winner in the dispute was the English language which gained a new verb, though beyond a slightly sinister aura it's hard to know what 'to rendang' means. That's the problem: everyone's a critic and everybody involved has a very thin skin, and is apt to explode at any moment. Torode made matters worse by tweeting something emollient and ending his message with a cheery 'Namaste'. Didn't he realise that namaste is not a fitting Malaysian farewell, fumed naysayers? Some 9,000 signatures supported a petition calling on him to apologise. Which, unless I've lost my mind and without wanting to make 9,000 enemies, is some loony woke nonsense. And yet the debacle points up how fraught televised cookery is and how it risks becoming a lethal cocktail of chippy keyboard warriors facing off against the kind of unexamined man babies who, insanely, have been given access to the knife drawer. That purported genius chef from The Bear who locked himself in the walk-in fridge to have a nervous breakdown on his restaurant's opening night and Ralph Fiennes poisoning anyone who ever crossed him in The Menu are the leading exemplars of the latter. And those are just kitchen fictions. As we know from Gordon Ramsay, reality TV is apt to be a yet more harrowing chip pan fire of the vanities than its fictional counterparts. But the broader point is this: Britain is a country that, if one made a compilation of its best culinary moments, would definitely begin with King Alfred burning the cakes and might well end with Gregg Wallace telling social media that the only people outraged by his propensity to drop his trousers backstage to present onlookers with his signature dish of sorpresa all porca were middle class women with humanities degrees from Russell Group universities who don't appreciate what, looked at objectively, was just proletarian high jinks – so far as I understand his apology to the complaints of more than 50 women involved on the show. It is a miracle that a nation so infamous for its cuisine has been such a tastemaker for so long. And yet it has: in 2017 the Guinness Book of Records officially recognised MasterChef as the most successful television cookery format. MasterChef is one of this post-industrial nation's most successful export products, filmed in 50 countries and broadcast in 200 territories, with many formats of which the Brazilian variant MasterChef: Para Tudo (MasterChef: Stop Everything) sounds most exciting. MasterChef's origin story takes us back to 1990, when clever producers created it as the spawn of Mastermind if less cerebral, and sibling of Angela Rippon's Masterteam but less collaborative. If only Dame Angela had been recruited as host, none of this nonsense of recent weeks on MasterChef would have happened. There would have been no Wallace ascribing his sexual misconduct to autism, and no Torode preparing a defence for his sacking over alleged racist remarks, to damage the brand. Plus the former newsreader could have high-kicked her way through the longueurs of food preparation, which would have got my vote. Who wants to watch people from Daventry stir gravy on telly eyed by these two, Wallace with his grin as mirthless as de Niro's and Torode, like the Assyrian king in Delacroix's The Death of Sardanapalus, dead eyed and sated from excess of, in his case, competitively cooked cuisine? That's not jeopardy. That's telly tedium. But then I didn't understand the appeal of Friends either. What happens next? Can MasterChef be put together again? That's not how Humpty Dumpty nor soufflés work. True, critic and occasional judge Grace Dent was astutely hired last year to replace Wallace during investigations into his misconduct. With her lovely regional accent and long association with the show, she is the right person to detox the brand. And what of the most recent unbroadcast series? All those contestants denied their moments of prime time fame? It's possible they might have a case to sue for denial of self-publicity and loss of projected future income attendant thereon, though I'm no lawyer. Perhaps only many years hence, like Bob Dylan's the Basement Tapes or those Bruce Springsteen albums now coming to light, will the time be right to release the last series to an expectant public. Dent would need a co-host, ideally one with culinary moves. I recommend communist Moral Maze contributor Ash Sarkar whose recipe for fish finger bhorta was championed by no less a domestic goddess than Nigella Lawson. Neither Dent nor Sarkar, I'll wager, would get caught with their trousers down in the green room or alienate whole countries. And one final change to detoxify MasterChef: the name, with all the unacceptable patriarchal connotations of its prefix, must go even if the format remains the same. My suggestion? Dinner Ladies, with Grace and Ash. You know you'd watch it.
Hindustan Times
12-07-2025
- Entertainment
- Hindustan Times
David Corenswet or Rachel Brosnahan weren't even the highest paid on Superman cast. Here's who took 3X their salaries
James Gunn's Superman is off to flying start, already becoming the week's biggest release in India. While the worldwide and domestic US figures are awaited, new intel has arrived on the cast's salaries. David Corenswet, left, kisses the hand of Rachel Brosnahan as they pose for photographers upon arrival at a fan screening of Superman, on Wednesday, July 2, 2025, in London. (Photo by Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP)(Scott A Garfitt/Invision/AP) Paychecks for Superman cast Entertainment journalist Matthew Belloni took to Puck to share 'What I'm hearing, the inside take on Hollywood.' In the new post, he spoke about how he overheard Gunn gloating about the cast of his new movie. David Corenswet plays Superman/Clark Kent and Rachel Brosnahan plays Lois Lane. Lex Luthor is brought back to the big screen by Nicholas Hoult, who is also the highest paid among all three. Belloni wrote, 'Nicholas Hoult, who got $2 million to play Lex Luthor, is the highest paid in the Superman cast, per three sources. Makes sense; he's an established name in film. David Corenswet earned just $750,000 to don the blue and red Underoos—about the going rate for unknowns in franchise roles. Rachel Brosnahan, a TV star untested in film, also earned $750,000 as Lois Lane. All three are in line for box office bonuses if Superman performs, of course.' Where have you seen them before? Nicholas has previously starred in X-Men as The Beast. He was also in Nosferatu, The Menu and most famously, on The Great. David is a relative newcomer and Rachel is best known for her hit series Marvelous Mrs Maisel. She even won an Emmy for it in 2018. Critical reaction to the Warner Bros. Discovery production has so far been broadly positive, even though Hollywood studios are facing rising criticism over their reliance on reheated classics and comic book characters. Review aggregator website Rotten Tomatoes gave it a high 83% rating based on the views of 230 critics. The main plot sees Superman torn between his alien Kryptonian identity and his bond with humanity as he strives to protect the people of Earth. He finds himself under fire when he intervenes in a foreign conflict in which a dictator is waging war on a defenceless nation for its wealth, a possible allusion to Russian President Vladimir Putin's 2022 invasion of Ukraine.
The Hindu
10-07-2025
- Entertainment
- The Hindu
Three win awards in short film competition at AbilityFEST 2025
The ninth edition of the 'AbilityFEST 2025-India International Disability Film Festival', organised by national cross-disability NGO Ability Foundation, came to an end on Thursday here with Nikita Konari securing the first place in '60 seconds to Fame-All India One Minute Film Competition on Disability' for her film The Menu. This year's theme for the competition was 'Through Your Lens: A Celebration of Disability Inclusion'. Speaking at the event, founder of Ability Foundation Jayshree Raveendran said, 'AbilityFEST2025 has not only screened powerful films, but also amplified the voices of individuals with disabilities, fostering understanding and empathy across communities.' The second place went to Mathan Raj Baskaran for Sail, third place to Geeta Poduval for her film Dance of Inclusivity and a Jury Special Mention to Pradev Kumar for Friendly Family Forever. The competition received entries from all over the country, and the films featured in the festival represented 11 countries. Over four days, the festival screened a number of award-winning short films, documentaries, and features from across the world. Addressing the audience, director of Sitaare Zameen Par R.S. Prasanna said the film's young actors were the most focused and prepared group he had worked with. The writer of the film Sitaare Zameen Par, Divy Nidhi Sharma, the film's actors, actor-director and trustee of Ability Foundation Revathy, co-producer Aparna Purohit, lyricist Madhan Karky, and executive director of the Madras Management Association Vijayakumar took part in the festival.
