In the high-speed car-chase thriller Collide, Nicholas Hoult plays a guy who goes to extreme lengths to pay for emergency medical treatment for his girlfriend, played by Felicity Jones. "I would describe it as thrilling and exciting," Hoult says. "It's an action-packed rush!"

Felicity Jones and Nicholas Hoult in Collide

The 27-year-old has been acting since he was a young boy, and enjoys drawing on his experiences. "I've managed to work with a lot of people I look up to," he says. "I remember while shooting the last X-Men watching James McAvoy do a couple of scenes, I was thinking 'Damn, this guy is so good,' and then being like, 'Oh sh*t! Nick, don't forget that you're in it too!'"

And he has enjoyed working opposite some of the top leading ladies of his generation, from Jennifer Lawrence to Kristen Stewart to Felicity Jones. "What strikes me is how different they all are," Hoult says. "They have the ability to completely transport, and even though you're in the scene with them, everything else around you just disappears. They're very captivating!"

For her part, Jones has enjoyed a variety of roles from The Theory of Everything to A Monster Calls to Rogue One. "I think you sometimes have to take a bit of a gamble," she says, "in that everything about the project may not be perfect when it comes through to you, but you take a punt on a director, ultimately, and on the character. A lot of what you build comes from those relationships, from those dynamics, from those rehearsals."

And with Collide, she had the chance to work with two icons, Anthony Hopkins and Ben Kingsley, who play rival gangsters in the movie. "It was really encouraging," she says, "because you think that when you get to that point and you've been working for years and years and years, you'd think that they would come with a full entourage and would be difficult and wouldn't communicate with you. But they're absolutely the opposite, totally passionate about what they do. They were always chatting in between takes. They don't take it for granted. They have very different styles of acting and it was a good front row seat when we were all doing a scene together!"

Hoult agrees with this. "They're so passionate and prepared," he says, "and kind and generous as well with us. You'd do a scene and be blown away watching what they were doing. It was a phenomenal ride."

Watch the trailer for Collide: