Question: (following a garden path, midtown Manhattan looming nearby): So you're showing him how to play golf?

Grant: Yes, we're working on his swing. He's made depressingly little progress over the last few months.

Hoult: I have. It just doesn't show in my swing. It shows in where the ball goes.

Grant: Our match will be the evidence of that.

Q: Have you played together?

Grant: No, we're going to. I told him he had to play better. Otherwise it would be boring.

Q: Is this the first time you've seen each other since the shoot ended?

Grant: We saw each other last weekend.

Hoult: And for photos and all that.

Q: You said you hung on his coattails at the premiere in London because you were nervous about it.

Hoult: Yeah, just a bit.

Grant: It's quite a scene, British premieres. It's not like the ones here. Huge crowds, like something from the 1950s. A lot of photographers, a lot of screaming people. It's very odd. Normally reserved people turn into "The Day of the Locust."

Q: Did you hit it off immediately?

Hoult: I think he was intimidated by me.

Grant (laughing): We were pretty friendly from the get-go.

Q: Your relationship on screen is uncertain for a while, though I guess you're not shooting in order.

Grant: That's true. But you know what it's like on a film set. I'm quite intense on a film set. Surprisingly neurotic. Concentrated.

Q: Paul [Weitz] said his job was to get you to lighten up.

Grant: Yes, that's everyone's job in life for me.

Q: Did you show him [Hoult] the ropes, acting-wise?

Grant: No, he knew exactly what he was up to. I didn't have to do any business like that.

Q: This must be the polar bear exhibit. [It's under repair, inhabited by workmen instead of bears.]

Grant: Fantastic if they'd left one in there by mistake and he came out and devoured all four of those men. That would be a spectacle. That, I would pay to see. [To a zoo employee:] We don't find any animals in your zoo. I don't think there are any.

Zoo employee: There are otters over there, and red pandas.

Grant: We're losing faith in the Manhattan zoo.

Hoult: Strange, I was driving around and I said, "Where's Manhattan?" And we're here.

Grant: That was a really stupid thing to say.

Zoo employee (pointing to more animals): Otters.

Hoult: They reek.

Grant: They are semi-vermin. They look a bit rat-like to me. Members of the weasel family.

Hoult: There's this humongous rat in our garden that my dog killed.

Grant: Have you had any fatalities amongst your visitors here?

Zoo employee: No.

Grant: No one's been devoured?

Zoo employee: No.

Hoult: That happened in London. A couple of people went into the lion pen.

Grant: The zoo in London, people get killed every week. A keeper or something.

Zoo employee (arriving at another exhibit): Breezy is a very old sea lion. She's in her 30s. They only live to be in their mid-20s.

Grant: I think it's rather cynical of you to keep a dead sea lion.

Zoo employee: She's very responsive. She's also blind.

Grant: That's tragic. Why don't you put her down?

Zoo employee: Because she's very happy. She likes to swim. She goes out on her rock. She's resting.

Grant: Poor Breezy. She looks quite comfortable. I would like to go lie on her. Very nice. Next animal, please.

Hoult (at another exhibit): Penguins!

Grant: How sweet. They look like they're posing. I like the way you've mixed live ones with a stuffed one. Those two over there are clearly stuffed. Do they have any fishing for them to do here? Do you make it fun for them?

Zoo employee: We're bringing in live trout.

Grant: That's cool. Give them some live trout. How big is an emperor penguin? I read a whole book about finding the emperor penguin's egg.

Zoo employee: Four to five feet tall.

Grant: Like a child. About your height.

Hoult: I'm not that small. [He's 5 feet, 4 inches.]

Grant: As big as he was when he did the movie. How much have you grown since the film?

Hoult: Two inches.

Grant: Nah. It's more like a foot. [He switches topics.] I did a TV thing about the Antarctic expedition in 1912 [1985's "The Last Place on Earth"]. We actually shot it in the Arctic up in Baffin Island.

Q: What a cool aspect of your job, to be able to do things like that. Have you done other stuff like that?

Grant: You know me, romantic comedy doesn't take you to very exotic locations. In the old days, it was more fun. I got to drive dog sleds and all kinds of things. I know how to command huskies. You know, there are no reins or anything. You've just got to shout at them in Inuit. "Ahee" means left; "heeha" means right. I never quite mastered it.

Zoo employee (moving on): Puffins.

Grant: I feel a bit sorry for the puffins. They're just not as interesting as the penguins. [Pointing to the puffins:] Hideous too. Someone in Hollywood has hair like that. Horrible. [Outside now, hot, humid, thunder, lightning, but no rain.] It would really make your story if one of us were killed by lightning.

Q: It would. It's supposed to be a nice weekend, except you'll be inside [doing interviews].

Grant: I have a fantastic golf course in my hotel room. I have an excellent little golf hole. It's like this electronic thing on a mat with a hole drawn on it. When the ball goes over the hole, it makes the gurgling sound of a hole swallowing a ball. Glug, glug, glug, nice putt. I'm obsessed with it.

Q: Did you bring that putting device with you?

Grant: I was given it at the start of shooting [a movie he's currently filming in New York] to keep me quiet.

Zoo employee (inside steamy greenhouse): This is the rain forest.

Hoult: Where are the animals? There's got to be a crocodile. I love that program ["The Crocodile Hunter"], but he's a nut case, the Australian guy [Steve Irwin], and he runs up to them and goes, "This is a real big one."

Grant: He's always sort of hanging out with dangerous animals. "Look at that beauty. God, he's biting my arm, get off!"

Grant (stopping in front of a glass case): Oh, tree boa. Look at that. Let's see if we can make it attack. [Raps on the glass.] Open your fangs, tree boa. Do you think that's one or two snakes?

Zoo employee: I think there are two in there.

Grant: It's like trying to sort out your telephone cables.

Hoult: Do you feed them live stuff, like mice?

Zoo employee: At times. Crickets. Some of the snakes get mice.

Grant: Is that one about to strike or we could stay here all night and it wouldn't move?

Hoult (outside again, the heavens about to open up): I was hoping they'd have a crocodile, but they don't.

Grant: Thanks for the trip.

Q: It was different, anyway.

Grant: It was. And we've learned so much.