More sex, more schemes, and new famous faces: Hoult and Fanning raise a glass to what’s in store when the outrageous Hulu dramedy returns.
“He just does not get it.”
Elle Fanning is lamenting the fact that her The Great costar Nicholas Hoult did not laugh at her appropriately crude joke. The two, who play Russia’s Catherine the Great and Emperor Peter III in the outrageous Hulu dramedy series, have reunited for EW’s cover shoot in Savannah (as luck would have it, they’re both in Georgia filming different projects) having recently wrapped the Emmy-nominated show’s upcoming second season.
The joke in question involved another princess, albeit a fictional one — Cinderella. Instead of a slipper, though, this version was in need of a tampon. As Fanning tells it, Cinderella’s fairy godmother obliged but warned her that if she was not back by midnight, it would turn into a pumpkin. She goes to the ball and returns much later than midnight, much to the fairy godmother’s surprise. “Where on earth were you? How did you do it?” she asks incredulously. To which Cinderella replies with a wink, “Oh, I was with this guy. I think his name was Peter Peter Pumpkin Eater.”
Hoult’s confusion is still written all over his face as Fanning recounts this. There’s a certain level of irony involved in the interaction, given that on The Great it is usually Hoult’s Peter saying ludicrous things to the bewilderment of Fanning’s more refined royal. Not to be outdone, though, Hoult will spend the rest of the shoot making japes and jests, particularly about a comically large slice of ginger in a prop cocktail.
This competitive dynamic exists between the actors both on and off screen. “The characters of Catherine and Peter are always trying to one-up each other,” Hoult explains. “Elle and I have a healthy habit of doing the same to each other as actors. Within scenes, we’re completely supportive and trying to get the best from each other — but also at the same time, battling within it and having fun.” Underscoring his point: As the two are vamping it up under the bright lights and the snapping cameras at the shoot, Hoult goes in for a kiss. Just before their lips can meet, he pops a macaron into his mouth with a cat-ate-the-canary grin.
It’s this battle of wills and wits that lies at the heart of season 2, all 10 episodes of which are available Friday. At the end of the critically acclaimed first season, Catherine’s big attempt to pull off a coup and unseat her husband was in full swing, and she had just seemingly sacrificed her lover Leo (Sebastian de Souza) to the cause — although the outcome of both of these events was not shown on screen. Oh, and there was the small matter of her being pregnant with Peter’s child.
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