Nicholas Galitzine has built a career playing princes. Opposite a female pop star, an all-American hunk, and an Academy Award–winning actress, Galitzine brings particular depth to even the frothiest of projects. Now, with a wicked turn playing a deceitful son opposite Julianne Moore in Mary & George (Starz) and depicting a Harry Styles–esque singer in The Idea of You with Anne Hathaway, Galitzine shows no signs of slowing down. “I feel like I’ve been threatening to launch for a while. I’m revving the engine of the car, but we haven’t quite taken off yet.” This summer, that’s all about to change.

BORN IN South West London to an entrepreneurial father and Greek financier mother, “being an actor was like joining the circus.”

THE RUGBY STUD was close to going professional, but injuries benched him for his final year of secondary school. After overcoming stage fright in the ensemble of Guys & Dolls, he followed friends and “a girl who I was really into at the time” to the Edinburgh Fringe Festival for “a last hurrah before we all went our separate ways. Going up to Scotland, getting shit-faced, doing plays.”

SUCCESS CAME QUICKLY. Galitzine caught the eye of an agent, but his costars had less luck. “I felt a huge amount of impostor syndrome. I went from having never acted before to being the lead of a movie in the space of two months, which was really, really bizarre.”

ON ADJUSTING TO FAME around his friends: “I felt like, ‘Was I gloating?’ or ‘Was it too self-deprecating?’ It just felt like this impossible task. But then over time, the more comfortable I got in my skin.”

SINCE THEN his hot streak has continued, blowing past the limits usually in place for the heartthrob. “It’s been so validating to see and hear people noticing the versatility in my work.”

HIS TURN as the psychotic high school quarterback Jeff in the sapphic comedy Bottoms proved to be an unforgettable experience. “We joked, ‘God must hate the gays,’ because we had to deal with locusts, lightning, and torrential storms to finish this brilliant movie. We were bonded for life in the sweltering heat of New Orleans wearing skintight American football uniforms.”

IN THE IDEA OF YOU, Galitzine and Hathaway were clear about making the pulpy fanfic serve a purpose. “We both viewed the intimacy as integral to the storyline but not salacious. I think female pleasure has been reduced to the sidelines for so long, and it felt like we were on a mission to really make an important movie for women turning 40 and later on, and just giving women a sense of ownership and empowerment. And that sounds almost silly to say, but that’s where we’ve been. I think as an industry, we have needed to improve upon the implicit misogyny that I think has existed. We just work really well together. I think it’s because we share a lot of values
and we just really get on.”

HIS TRIP to SXSW with The Idea of You was particularly moving. The fans’ enthusiasm left Hathaway in tears. As for Galitzine, “It’s filling me with confidence, a quiet confidence.”

GROOMING, CANDICE BIRNS; TAILOR, YELENA TRAVKINA; SET DESIGN, COLIN PHELAN. PRODUCED ON LOCATION BY JN PRODUCTION. NEW HORIZONS II: TYLER MITCHELL. FOR DETAILS, GO TO VF.COM/CREDITS.