Pop Culturalist Chats with Christmas With A Prince: Becoming Royal’s Nick Hounslow

Model, celebrity fitness trainer, and actor. Nick Hounslow, clearly, is a man with many talents. Arriving in Hollywood from England, he’s been in everything from fashion runways to music videos to TV shows.

His latest project, Christmas With a Prince: Becoming Royal, is the sequel to last year’s hit holiday film, Christmas With a Prince. We chatted with Nick about reprising his role as Prince Alexander, his career, and the superhero he’d like to play one day.

PC: What can you tease about Christmas with a Prince: Becoming Royal and your character’s arc in this sequel?
Nick: You get to delve more into Prince Alex’s character and see some more reasons why he is like he is. There’s a few twists and turns which I think most people won’t expect. I’m excited for everybody to see it.

PC: When you originally signed on to the project, did you know that there would be multiple installments?
Nick: No! It was such a surprise; the first movie just did really well. Coming from England, we have holidays movies, but we end up re-playing Love Actually every single year. So, when I came over to America and booked this role, a friend of mine was like, “Oh my god! Holiday movies are huge here.” I was like, “Really??” Then I did the movie, and it did really well so then we knew we needed to shoot a second one. Now there’s possibly talk of a third so that’s really cool.

PC: Was preparation a little different for you since it was reprising a role?
Nick: I was really excited to develop him a little more. What was interesting is that I didn’t actually get the script until the day I was flying to Canada to shoot. For the first movie, I had it three weeks prior to prep and do all my work that I like to do. So, that was one thing that was super different; I was reading it on the plane. It actually kind of allowed me to do stuff that I wouldn’t have normally done had I had time to prep–in a good way! It let me have more fun. I’m very prepared; I like to have everything done and ordered and ready to go. This didn’t allow me to do any of that. Once I got over the initial anxiety, it was actually really fun.

PC: As you said, holiday movies are really popular here. How does this holiday film differentiate itself from other holiday films?
Nick: I think that this one, like I said, has a few ups and downs and takes you on a roller coster more than the slightly generic formula films would. It also leaves you, at the end of it, thinking, “I want to know what happens next.” That’s the way the first one did, too, and it did so well. Also, [this has] such a great cast. Everybody in the cast is fun and amazing. It was really great to go back and work with them.

PC: What had initially attracted you to the first film?
Nick: For me, it was going into a world that is a bit unknown. I didn’t know that genre of movies. I had never been to Canada before. I love Toronto. It was amazing. I could live there–except for the harsh winter!

PC: You began your career in modeling and fitness. What was the transition like for you from those things into acting?
Nick: Acting was always there. All through school I was in plays and loved it, but I was so shy. I made myself do it because I was so shy. I fell into modeling at 17 and that took off. I traveled around Europe. Then I started booking jobs in America. I wasn’t that skinny, waif-looking guy so I did [jobs like] Polo and Abercrombie. I booked a big Bloomingdale’s job that brought me to L.A., and I was doing a fashion show before the Oscars. These managers came up to me then and were like, “You look just like this guy on Days of Our Lives. He’s leaving, but they want to replace him.” In the end, the actor came back, but that was when I thought that maybe I could do acting in L.A.

Fitness has always been in my life. I was a heavy kid when I was a teenager and got bullied for it so I took fitness into my own hands and made it part of my lifestyle. Whatever I do as my career, fitness is always there in the background so I don’t think I ever have to choose [between the three]. I have amazing clients I can travel with when they film, and then if I book something—acting or modeling—I can leave and do my stuff.

PC: Do you have a dream role?
Nick: When I was a kid, I loved science fiction—anything that was Marvel or superheroes. To be honest, I never thought I would be the lead of a movie. When someone handed me the DVD [of Christmas With a Prince] last year, I couldn’t believe what I was looking at. It didn’t feel real. Now I think of the little kid that used to dress up as superheroes, and I would love to play an X-Men or a Mutant or something like that.

PC: Who or what has had the biggest influence on your career?
Nick: The “what” right now is probably…so I get this a lot: people look at me now and think everything came easy. But, like I said, I was really heavy and was never the kid that got picked for lead roles. That, I think, helped me with acting, though, because it helped me develop a level of empathy. It helps me relate and gives me another layer when I’m acting.

For “who”….I respect so many people’s work out there. When I was on The Catch, Peter Krause was so nice and down-to-earth. I’ve always admired his work from Six Feet Under to everything else, and I thought, “That’s the kind of guy I would like to become.” You know, like, booking role after role, but not losing who you are.

Pop Culturalist Speed Round

Last TV Show You Binge-Watched
Schitt’s Creek

Favorite Film
The Matrix. For the longest time it was a go-to film that I would watch over and over again.

A Place You’d Like to Go Back to
Greece

Artist or Musician You Could Listen to on Repeat
Adele

Hidden Talent
I’m really good at baking.

Person You Most Would Like to Meet
I would’ve loved to have met Nelson Mandela.

Keep up with Nick Hounslow by following him on Twitter or Instagram!