Nicholas Galitzine on Hugh Jackman's Wisdom and Moving Beyond the 'Heartthrob' Label

With Masters of the Universe now in cinemas, Nicholas Galitzine is reflecting on his evolving career trajectory and the guidance that helped shape his approach to the high-stakes role.

The 30-year-old actor opened up about a conversation he had with Hugh Jackman shortly before production began on the fantasy epic, where he plays Adam Glenn/He-Man. Speaking to VMAN in an interview published Friday, Galitzine revealed how Jackman's experience launching the X-Men franchise proved invaluable to his own preparation.

"He made a point to me that when he did the first X-Men, compared to the other iterations, it was such a steep learning curve for him, but once he did it, he had learned so much that it became easier," Galitzine explained, noting that he hopes subsequent Masters of the Universe films will benefit from the same trajectory should the franchise expand.

Beyond the technical lessons, Galitzine is also pushing back against being confined to a single Hollywood archetype. The Purple Hearts star addressed the frequent "heartthrob" designation, explaining that such labels fail to capture his ambitions or identity.

"As monikers, those don't necessarily encapsulate what I want to do, who I am, and how I see myself," he said.

To that end, Galitzine has been deliberately seeking out projects featuring morally ambiguous characters. He recently completed a smaller-scale indie film where he portrays complex, ethically gray figures, and previously starred in The 100 Nights of Hero, another project exploring similar thematic territory.

"Especially in the last few years, I feel like I've been able to gather more agency in my career. It's about diversifying the projects you do," Galitzine noted. "I have quite an exciting couple of years coming up where I feel the roles are extremely different, so who knows, maybe people will ascribe different monikers to those, but I'm very happy being where I am at this moment in time."

The actor will also reprise his role as Prince Henry in the upcoming Red, White & Royal Wedding.