Euphoria star Jacob Elordi sat down with British GQ for the “Men of the Year” issue to discuss the films he’s moved on from, like The Kissing Booth, and the superhero role he’s passed up on.
The cover story dives into Elordi’s breakout role in Netflix’s The Kissing Booth, where he plays a hot jock that gets into Harvard. Despite the quirky romance becoming a hit and releasing two sequels, “it still made Elordi miserable,” GQ wrote, and created a challenge when he made the shift from teen hunk to stern thespian.
“I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies,” said Elordi. “Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape.”
When told the films fit into a “one for them, one for me” ethos, he replied: “That one’s a trap as well. Because it can become 15 for them, none for you. You have no original ideas and you’re dead inside. So it’s a fine dance.”
In the interview published Monday, Elordi also revealed he’s turned down an opportunity to read for Superman. “That was immediately, ‘No, thank you.’ That’s too much,” he told GQ. “That’s too dark for me.”
“I’ve always been told to say a rounded answer or my agent will get mad at me. ‘Anything can happen!’” Elordi said. The actor also expressed his apprehension with press interviews, and reflected on a humiliating video where he had to guess the food in his mouth, one of them a banana.
“How will you believe me when it’s 1943 and I’m in a prisoner-of-war camp doing surgery on somebody? ‘I just saw him with a banana halfway down his throat on fucking YouTube,’” Elordi said.
As of late, Elordi has broke into more serious roles such as the “King of Rock and Roll” in Priscilla and as Oxford’s elite in Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. Despite the star’s rise to stardom, he’s still hesitant about sitting down for interviews with journalists.
“I’m wary of having any kind of absolute. I almost feel like, for me, I change every single step I take,” he said. “That’s why I really, really, really don’t like interviews, because you set something in stone as an absolute.”