He-Man Fans Need To Watch The New Movie Star's Best Performance Yet
By Published May 3, 2026, 2:05 PM EDT
August is a freelance film writer. She studied journalism and cinema at American University. She is a member of the journalism honor society, Kappa Tau Alpha. August has written for various networks and publications, including PBS, Gargoyle Magazine, TheThings, and Identity Theory Magazine. Before returning to entertainment writing, August worked in the Automotive section of U.S. News & World Report. In her free time, August enjoys watching movies in theaters, watching movies at home, listening to podcasts about movies, reading books about movies, watching video essays on movies, talking about movies, thinking about movies, and knitting.
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Nicholas Galitzine is known as a strapping leading man, but his best performance yet is a side role in a low-budget comedy — .
Galitzine garnered notoriety as the romantic lead in Red, White & Royal Blue (2026) and The Idea of You (2026). This summer, he transforms into the hulking He-Man in his upcoming action flick, Masters of the Universe. While his romantic films dabbled in comedy, the actor's roles have been largely measured and grounded in drama.
Bottoms sees Galitzine indulge in pure, unfettered idiocy, to the delight of the actor and the audience. The 2026 LGBTQ+ comedy follows two high school girls (Ayo Edebiri and Rachel Sennott) as they initiate a female fight club in an effort to attract their cheerleader crushes. Galitzine plays Jeff, the worshiped football star with a cheerleader girlfriend (Havana Rose Liu).
Directed by Emma Seligman (Shiva Baby), the film became an instant cult classic for its surreal comedy that hearkened back to films such as Not Another Teen Movie or But I’m A Cheerleader. While perhaps not as well-known as his more serious work, Bottoms is to date.
Nicholas Galitzine Parodies The Jock Archetype In Bottoms
The movie depicts a heightened, surrealist version of high school. As such, the actors have the freedom to explore the most over-the-top version of . Galitzine apparently thrives in this freedom.
Jeff is the most extreme version of a pampered jock stereotype, idolized to the level of a religious figure. He literally eats lunch at a cloth-covered table in front of an enormous reproduction of Michelangelo’s "The Creation of Adam," with his likeness in place of Adam.
The entire school, particularly Jeff’s overly doting friend (Miles Fowler), protects and defends the star at all costs. This pampering has made him a helpless man-child who collapses in anguish when his knee is tapped by a car. Ditching the hyper-masculine bravado of a jock archetype, Galitzine plays Jeff as an idiodic diva.
Speaking with Leo Woodall in the Actors on Actors series, Galitzine explained that he had to abandon his usual process for understanding and inhibiting a character. As a ridiculous cartoon version of a jock, Jeff lacked the depth necessary for extensive character exploration. Instead, Galitzine approached scenes with a clean slate, sitting in the moment and allowing the action to go where it may. This openness translated to a completely uninhibited performance that rendered some of his best and silliest work yet.
Emma Seligman would direct Galitzine to play one scene as if he were a fussy baby, another as if he were a manipulative sociopath, and so on. Galitzine unabashedly committed to these acting exercises and delivered a hilariously overdone performance that somehow still felt cohesive.
Bottoms Showcases Galitzine's Range And Comedic Expertise
Though known as a commanding leading man, Galitzine expertly leans into the absurdity of Bottoms. His performance demonstrates an ability to embody any character, no matter how outlandish. He shows a particular deftness in physical comedy, an aspect of the role he has described as liberating to explore in an interview.
Galitzine leans into the absurdity of Jeff in every scene, whether dramatically performing "Total Eclipse of the Heart" in his bedroom or crudely thrusting on the football field. Despite his perfectly cartoonish acting, Galitzine still manages to portray Jeff as a tangible and interesting character.
Viewers cannot get enough of this contemptible character due to Galitzine's hilarious performance. Jeff is an infuriating complication in the film's narrative—barring our protagonist from her crush—yet you never want the entertaining character to leave. In Bottoms, Galitzine proves that he can not only perform in a straight comedy but even stand out against a cast of professional comedians.
The 2026 movie showcases Galitzine's expansive versatility, proving that he has the traits of both an engaging leading man and a great comedic actor. Before Galitzine storms through theaters as , audiences should see the actor's most uninhibited and idiodically brilliant role yet, Bottoms.
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