Australians love nothing more than one of their own hitting their stride in Hollywood. Better still if they're nearly 2 metres tall and garnering a name as the generation's next heartthrob. Well, that's Jacob Elordi in a nutshell: long, handsome, and wickedly talented. Hailing from Brisbane, the actor struck gold when he landed a leading role in Netflix's YA film, The Kissing Booth. By the time he was tapped to star as the seething, sociopathic teen jock Nate Jacobs in Euphoria, the inevitability of his success was writ large.
Now, all these years later the actor is gearing up for a busy year of releases. Emerald Fennell's Saltburn will hit theatres on November 16, and in a couple of months so will Sofia Coppola's Priscilla, both of which he leads. Later, we can expect to see him crystallised in the grainy texture of The Sweet East, then On Swift Horses, before taking on the role of Dorrigo Evans in Justin Kurzel's adaptation of Australian author Richard Flanagan's Booker Prize-winning novel, The Narrow Road to the Deep North. If it sounds like a lot, it's because it is. The actor is on a hot streak.
Below, we bring you the best performances of Jacob Elordi's acting career so far.
The Kissing Booth (2018)
With the rollout of ads, rising subscription prices and the end of password sharing, it's probably time to accept the glory days of Netflix are over. However, we'll always have The Kissing Booth. It's a masterpiece, just watch the clip attached as evidence. It was also the breakout role that put Jacob Elordi on our radar, proof that we all have to start somewhere. For Elordi, that was a high school bad boy Noah Flynn, who walked so Nate Jacobs could run. Based on the Wattpad hit by Beth Reekles, this is for fans of Jenny Han and anyone looking to flick their brain into smooth mode.
Deep Water (2022)
Ben Affleck and Ana de Armas dated? If it weren't for the tabloids, you'd never know. But we are not here to discuss the onscreen chemistry of two exes, we are here to work out why Jacob Elordi starred in this film. Oh, wait! That's it, Sam Levinson co-wrote the script. You can tell. And in this adaptation of Patricia Highsmith’s 1957 novel of the same name, Jacob's character Charlie ends his affair with de Armas' character Melinda face down in a pool. Is Melinda's husband Vic (Affleck) the killer? Take a guess.
Saltburn (2023)
Kicking off a lineup of new films set to premiere starring Jacob Elordi, is Emerald Fennell's stylish sophomore film, Saltburn. Where the director zoomed in on patriarchy in her debut, Promising Young Woman, Saltburn is a psychosexual thriller hinging on class. At the heart of the film is an erotic dynamic between Barry Keoghan's obsessive character Oliver Quick and the charismatic, wealthy and imposing presence of Elordi's Felix Catton. Think: The Talented Mr Ripley meets Parasite. Set at an Oxbridge-styled university, Oliver pierces the insular bubble of his rich, and not entirely willing, classmates. Felix takes pity on Oliver, and asks him to spend the summer at his family's estate in the English countryside. Over one hedonistic summer, Oliver finds himself in the Catton family's inner sanctum and develops a taste for the high life, until, suddenly, the rot beneath the surface is exposed, and tragedy strikes. Piled high with a formidable cast including names like Rosamund Pike, Richard E Grant, Carey Mulligan, Alison Oliver, Archie Madekwe and Ewan Mitchell, this is proof that Elordi's career only gets better with age.
Priscilla (2023)
Elordi's biggest role to date is no doubt being tapped to play the King in Sofia Coppola's adaptation of Priscilla Presley's 1985 memoir. Hardly a year since Austin Butler packed away his hammy accent, Elordi will do his own Elvis impression. Needless to say the stakes are high, as they always are whenever Elvis – and his devoted, protective fans – are involved. According to the reviews, the film offers a less flattering portrait of the rock n' roller, especially in comparison to Baz Luhrmann's lurid portrayal. Coppola is said to shift the focus on Priscilla, from girlhood to marriage to divorce. While the family is in support of Coppola and the film, it's failed to receive the rights to the musician's music which is managed by a separate board. Instead, Coppola has opted to introduce tracks from various decades to elicit the time warp we experienced in Marie Antoinette. With the release date set for January 18, we're looking forward to the New Year.
The Sweet East (2023)
The actor is bulking out his resume with films that we imagine will draw cult appeal. With The Sweet East, part of that appeal is the names attached. In what will be his directorial debut, Sean Price Williams shot the film on his signature 16mm grain, a style we associated with the cinematographer given his work on Good Time, Funny Pages and Wobble Palace. It will also star Ayo Edebiri, Jeremy O. Harris, Earl Cave, Rish Shah, Simon Rex, Andy Milonakis, and breakout lead, Talia Ryder. From what we can gather, Elordi will play Caleb, an 'artivist' and trust-fund anarchist that the movie's protagonist Lillian falls in with. The Sweet East has been put forward as a chaotic satire of the state of American politics. The film is scheduled for an American release on December 1, 2023.
On Swift Horses (Coming Soon)
As further proof of Elordi's hotstreak, the star is set to take the lead in this adaptation of Shannon Pufahl's 2019 novel On Swift Horses, which we anticipate will premiere sometime in 2024. Elordi stars alongside Normal People's Daisy Edgar-Jones, Will Poulter, Sasha Calle, and Babylon's Diego Calva, and the movie is directed by Daniel Minahan with principal photography beginning in February 2023. If the adaptation holds true to the source material, On Swift Horses will revolve around two storylines; Muriel, a newly married and recently orphaned woman working in a dead-end job at a diner in San Diego, and Julius, the brother of Muriel's husband Lee, a Korean war veteran, a thief and someone Muriel has met but once. Besides family, what joins both of these 1950s worlds is gambling. Prepare yourself for a hot, queer love story, too.
