Jacob Elordi (born 26 June 1997) is an Australian actor. After moving to Los Angeles in 2017 to pursue an acting career, he gained prominence with his role as Noah Flynn, the bad boy love interest, in Netflix's The Kissing Booth film series (2018–2021). He also became known for his role as troubled high school football player Nate Jacobs in HBO's teen drama series Euphoria (2019–present). In 2023, he starred as Elvis Presley in the biographical film Priscilla and as a wealthy university student in Saltburn, which earned him a nomination for the BAFTA Award for Best Actor in a Supporting Role.
Early life
Elordi was born on 26 June 1997[1] in Brisbane, Queensland, to a working class family consisting of his parents—Melissa, a stay-at-home mother and one-time cafeteria employee at Elordi's school, and John, a house painter who built the family's house—one older brother, and three older sisters.[2][3][4][5] John immigrated to Australia from the Basque Country at age eight.[6][7] "My grandfather would strangle me if he knew that it said Spanish descent", Elordi said of his Wikipedia page, which originally said his father's family was from Spain and he then corrected to Basque.[8]
While a player on his school's rugby team, Elordi performed in school musicals starting at age 12, starring in productions of Seussical and Charlie and the Chocolate Factory, and he soon began taking acting classes.[9] He was first inspired to become an actor by Heath Ledger, particularly because of his role in the 2008 film The Dark Knight.[10] He also played Oberon in a production of A Midsummer Night's Dream. At age 14, Elordi started practicing his American accent, modelling it after that of Vin Diesel.[2] He also attempted modelling at his mother's suggestion at age 15, but was told he was too tall to fit into the sample clothes.[11] Elordi attended the private all-boys, Roman Catholic secondary schools of St Kevin's College and St Joseph's College, where he felt "deeply unsettled".[5][12] According to Elordi, he "barely finished high school".[4]
Throughout secondary school, Elordi continued to play rugby until he broke a bone in his back during a match, which, according to him, pushed him away from athletics and toward acting.[11] He has stated that, after reading Waiting for Godot in a theater class at age 15, acting "became [his] church" and his personality changed as a result. His mother also encouraged him to pursue acting.[12] He was inspired by actors such as Marlon Brando, Laurence Olivier, Daniel Day-Lewis, Christian Bale, and Ledger and would read their biographies while emulating their behaviours.[13] He later attended an acting school in Melbourne and moved to the United States in 2017 at age 19 to pursue a career in acting.[11][14]
Career
2018–2022
Elordi's first experience on a Hollywood film set was in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales as an extra.[15] His first acting role was on the Australian film Swinging Safari in 2018, playing the role of Rooster.[16] Elordi starred in the Netflix romantic comedy film The Kissing Booth, which premiered in May 2018, as Noah Flynn, a "bad-boy jock" and the film's primary love interest.[17] Despite largely negative critical reception, the film became one of Netflix's most-watched titles in 2018 and brought Elordi to widespread fame.[18][19]
Elordi reprised the role in the sequels The Kissing Booth 2, which filmed in mid-2019 in Cape Town, and was released in July 2020; and The Kissing Booth 3, which was released on Netflix in August 2021.[17][20][21] In a 2023 interview for GQ, he stated that he had not wanted to make them, calling them "ridiculous" and stating that he did them to "do whatever the fuck [he had] to do" to become an actor in the United States.[22][23] He also spoke out against his objectification as a result of the films.[24]
Elordi in 2020
After filming was completed for the first Kissing Booth film, Elordi moved to Los Angeles. He helped a friend of his film an audition for a role in Sam Levinson's HBO drama series Euphoria, a remake of the Israeli series of the same name. While occasionally sleeping in his car and couch surfing at friends' houses with little money left and his visa expiring soon, he auditioned for Euphoria himself, with plans for it to be his last audition before moving back home.[25][18][10][4] He was then selected to play Nate Jacobs, a troubled high school football player with an abusive father, whom he portrayed from the show's pilot episode in 2019.[3][26] Elordi described the character as "a narcissist" and "a sociopath", while Clay Skipper of British GQ referred to the character as an antihero.[9][4] The role was described by Maanya Sachdeva of The Guardian as an "impressive career pivot" for Elordi and Samantha Bergeson of IndieWire called it his breakout role.[27]
He next portrayed a controlling Elvis Presley in the Sofia Coppola–directed Priscilla Presley biopic Priscilla, which is based on Priscilla's memoir Elvis and Me.[41] Coppola chose Elordi to play the role partially because of his "effect on women" during their first meeting, which she found comparable to Elvis's.[2]Priscilla premiered at the 80th Venice International Film Festival, where it was met with positive reception.[42] Gabriella Ferlita of PinkNews stated that Elordi "achieved countless words of praise for his rendition of The King" from critics.[43] His performance was often compared by critics to that of Austin Butler in Elvis (2022).[44][45][46]Richard Lawson of Vanity Fair wrote that Elordi "carefully calibrates Elvis's appeal and his pill-addled, domineering presence, his exacting demands and storms of frightening anger [in] a more enlightening take on the man than the one seen in Elvis".[45]
In 2024, Elordi hosted an episode of Saturday Night Live.[56] The episode received mostly negative critical reception for what critics found to be a heavy reliance on jokes about Elordi's attractiveness.[57][58] Elordi starred in Oh, Canada, a drama film directed by Paul Schrader, in which he played the younger version of Richard Gere's character, an aging documentary filmmaker reminiscing on his life.[2] Critics noted the lack of resemblance between Elordi and Gere, particularly due to Elordi being about half a foot taller than Gere.[59] His second film role that year was in On Swift Horses, a period drama about repressed sexuality.[60]
By the early 2020s, Elordi became known as a heartthrob and a sex symbol for Generation Z in the media.[63][64][23][65][66][11] Gabriella Paiella of GQ wrote that Elordi had "classic, undeniable leading man looks", while Larisha Paul of Rolling Stone called him "Hollywood's reigning heartthrob of the 2020s".[2][67] Elordi also became well known for his height of 1.96 metres (6 ft 5 in).[68][69] Esther Zuckerman wrote of Elordi in The Atlantic that he was best known for being "very tall" and "very handsome in a classical way".[70]
Elordi's relationships, including with Euphoria co-star Zendaya, model Kaia Gerber, The Kissing Booth co-star Joey King, and YouTuberOlivia Jade, also received widespread coverage in tabloids and on social media.[3][11][13] Elordi was the face of Hugo Boss's Boss the Scent fragrance in January 2022.[71] In March 2023, he became a global brand ambassador for the Swiss watch company TAG Heuer.[72][73]
In February 2024, Joshua Fox, a producer for the KIIS 106.5 radio show The Kyle and Jackie O Show, alleged on the show that, after he asked Elordi for his bath water—a reference to his role in Saltburn—as a gift for host Jackie O, Elordi pushed him and put his hands around his neck.[74] As of February 2024[update], the New South Wales Police Force are investigating the allegations.[75]
^"Jacob Elordi Replies to Fans on the Internet"(YouTube video). GQ. 30 July 2020. Retrieved 25 February 2024. I was in the background of the movie. I wasn't in the movie, I wasn't credited, I wasn't billed, I didn't audition, I was an extra.
Strong, Hannah (17 May 2024). "Oh, Canada – first-look review". Little White Lies. Retrieved 31 October 2024. There isn't much physical resemblance between Elordi and Gere (Elordi is seven inches taller for a start).
^Ilic, Nikolina (23 January 2022). "Jacob Elordi Is Young and Talented and Still Figuring It All Out". Men's Health Australia. Retrieved 15 February 2024. Right now he's more preoccupied with being noticed for something besides his pecs, his height, his out-of-this-world jawline and his dating life.... Everybody has something to say about Elordi's height.
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