Lex Luthor is a maniacal villain, but he comes with layers. There are different ways that an actor can get into the character’s head space. So I asked Nicholas Hoult on the Superman set where his Lex draws his power, and the X-Men: First Class actor told CinemaBend:

When it comes to iconic superhero rivalries, few are as sharply defined as Superman and Lex Luthor. It’s strength versus smarts, godlike alien power versus human paranoia, and hope versus control. Nic

"That's a really bolstering sort of thing to happen," Hoult tells EW. One of the first Lex Luthors that Nicholas Hoult remembers seeing as a kid is the one played by Michael Rosenbaum on Smallville, the CW series featuring Tom Welling as Clark Kent/Kal-El in a high-school coming-of-age setting.