There are two approximately six-five leading men who have been able to do press for their awards-season projects this fall: Adam Driver, who dons gray hair and an Italian accent in Michael Mann’s Ferrari, last seen telling a rude Q&A member “fuck you†this past weekend, and Jacob Elordi who plays Elvis in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and really loves his dog.
Elordi has built up a relatively quiet profile the past few years, splashing onto the scene with Netflix’s The Kissing Booth (and to the actor’s articulated chagrin, the two follow-up films) before shifting to notable hunks in HBO’s Euphoria and Adrian Lyne’s Deep Water (not to be confused with the Mark Ruffalo movie about nonstick pans). What did we know about him prior to three weeks ago? He’s the Elizabeth Debicki of boys and Australian. And lest anyone forget for three seconds, he really loves his dog, who apparently speaks 500 words — about the same number Elordi says in Priscilla.
The trifecta of this year’s Priscilla, Saltburn (November 17), and The Sweet East (December 1), with the bonus of a glossy GQ profile that puts him in a number of outfits, cements Elordi not just as the internet’s new boyfriend but as the internet’s weird boyfriend, a giant man stuffed to the brim with contradictions. He is amiable, but guarded. He is sensitive, but he ate a pound of bacon every day to prep for Priscilla. He will pet every animal he sees, and he thinks Superman is “too dark†for him. He loves to carry a designer bag to fill with stuff from “every category†in case he gets bored or needs to know the time in Australian on his pocket watch. He’s got a chin dimple. In a sea of nepo babies, he was cast on Euphoria in 2017 when he had only about $800 left in his bank account and was living in his car.
He dominates the screen and is impossible to look away from, both figuratively and literally. It’s a relief, in turn, that he’s not annoying in real life. He’s open about his ambivalence toward big-budget superhero movies and repeatedly praises Sofia Coppola’s filmmaking, and he has so far managed to do this without saying “fuck you†to an audience member. Elordi isn’t funny, really, nor is he altogether self-aware. What is hottest about him is not that he appears to be a smiling, easygoing Ken-doll type but that he seems like a guy who is just stumbling from rom-com to prestige television to indie TV, all the way comparing his dog to a seal. Isn’t that the trick with all internet boyfriends? They can’t be too polished, too manicured. They have to have the rough-and-tumble appeal of someone you could meet at a party.
On Instagram, Elordi posts promotional photos as well as blurry screenshots from what he’s watching (Jacob, drop the Letterboxd @, please!). While he might err on the side of pretentious, there is an undeniable earnestness — why lie about liking Bon Iver this much in 2023? Even he knows it’s a little embarrassing to be famous. While Austin Butler spent his Elvis days trying to be cool, winning everyone over through sheer mimicry and lopsided smile, Elordi rejects the assignment. He doubles down on poems and what seems like a well-used Criterion Channel subscription. If you’re watching him, you’re going to watch him on his terms.
Elordi isn’t new to the scene so much as he is finally bursting out of it. Saltburn’s Barry Keoghan — talented and also odd — already has an Oscar nomination under his belt. May December’s Charles Melton will be playing catch-up for the next month or two. Timothée Chalamet is, for better or worse, Willy Wonka. But Jacob Elordi is there, and he can be anyone. He can be a guy you see in the West Village, he can be a model, he can be the next Brando, or he can be Elvis. Or he can be all of these, somehow, at the same time.