Accompanying the post was a shot of Nicholas Hoult portraying Tesla in the movie The Current War. Hoult was seemingly flattered by the choice, considering that Tesla has also been played in movies by David Bowie (The Prestige) and Ethan Hawke (Tesla). "Clearly a very convincing performance I gave here," Hoult said on X, quoting Musk's original post. Want more movie news? Sign up for Entertainment Weekly's free newsletter to get the latest trailers, celebrity interviews, film reviews, and more. Nicholas Hoult as Nikola Tesla in 'The Current War'. 101 Studios / courtesy Everett Collection In addition to Hoult's Tesla, The Current War starred Benedict Cumberbatch as Thomas Edison and Michael Shannon as George Westinghouse. Directed by Alfonso Gomez-Rejon and produced by Martin Scorsese, the film dramatized the struggle between these three pioneers of electricity to determine whether direct current/DC (Edison's system) or alternating current/AC (which Tesla had refined) would become the go-to electric current in the United States. The Current War premiered at the Toronto International Film Festival on Sept. 9, 2017, and was originally slated for theatrical release that fall by The Weinstein Company. That was put on hold after the New York Times' reporting about decades of sexual assault allegations against Harvey Weinstein was published that October. The film was finally released in 2019. "Despite Gomez-Rejon’s admirable ambition, The Current War is bogged down by an effort to pack in too much," Mary Sollosi wrote in Entertainment Weekly's B-grade review. Nicholas Hoult says Robert Eggers gifted him Bill Skarsgård's prosthetic penis from Nosferatu: It's 'framed at home' Hoult is a busy man at the movies right now. He just starred in Clint Eastwood's Juror #2, which was hard to find in theaters but is now streaming on Max, as well as The Order (available now on digital platforms after a short theatrical window), and Robert Eggers' Nosferatu, which has become a big holiday hit. Next year, he'll portray iconic supervillain Lex Luthor in James Gunn's Superman. The previous cinematic incarnation of Luthor, played by Jesse Eisenberg in Batman v Superman: Dawn of Justice, took inspiration from tech billionaires such as Mark Zuckerberg. So maybe Hoult has been reading Musk's social media posts and taking notes. Close