Jacob Elordi didn’t want to make ‘ridiculous’ Kissing Booth movies

Jacob Elordi has revealed that he didn’t want to make the “ridiculous” Kissing Booth movies that first put him on our TV screens.

The Aussie heartthrob, who fans are about to see portray Elvis in Sophia Coppola’s Priscilla, first got on Hollywood’s radar when he was cast in Netflix’s cringey teen rom-com trilogy as bad boy high school senior Noah.

Noah causes a rift between his brother Lee (Joel Courtney) and Lee’s best friend Elle (Joey King) when he and Elle start seeing each other. Lots of drama, tears, Ivy League college applications, and dance battles ensue.

In a new interview with GQ for their Men of the Year cover, Elordi admits that he never wanted to make those movies. He just really needed a job.

“I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies,” he tells the magazine. “Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape.”

Commenting on the “one for them, one for me” trope among Hollywood actors, Elordi added: “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,” he replies. “My ‘one for them,’ I’ve done it.”

Last year, Elordi also expressed his distaste for the Kissing Booth film trilogy, revealing that he and the production team experienced creative differences over his character.

“I remember saying, ‘He smokes in the book. I need to smoke. He needs to have cigarettes. He’s a bad boy,” the 25-year-old told GQ at the time.

“I was like, ‘This is bull****!’ I remember going to war for it. I was like, ‘Are we lying to the f***ing millions of 14-year-olds out there? This guy smokes nicotine. It says here on page four – look!’ I imagine people were just like, ‘Jesus f***ing Christ. Is this guy serious?'”

Elsewhere in his new cover interview, Elordi spills that he was asked to read for the role of Superman – most likely for James Gunn’s Superman: Legacy, which has since cast newcomer David Corenswet as its leading man.

“Well, they asked me to read for Superman,” Elordi told the publication. “That was immediately, ‘No, thank you.’ That’s too much. That’s too dark for me.”

The Euphoria actor takes particular issue with those who say he might not be grateful enough about the roles he’s being offered, and that he was being pretentious.

“How is caring about your output pretentious?” he asks. “But not caring, and knowingly feeding people shit, knowing that you’re making money off of people’s time, which is literally the most valuable thing that they have. How is that the cool thing?”

When it comes to roles that Elordi does want to play, fans can look to his unsettling role in Emerald Fennell’s upcoming thriller Saltburn.

Elordi has said that his character Felix Cotton is “in many ways” even “scarier” than his infamous portrayal of toxic high school boyfriend Nate Jacobs in HBO’s Euphoria – and that’s saying something.

The film, which Emerald Fennell has revealed will be canonically queer, tells the story of Oliver (Barry Keoghan), who is struggling to make friends as a vulnerable new student at Oxford University.

Eventually, Oliver finds a connection with fellow student Felix, the deceptively charming, egotistical son and heir of the aristocratic Catton family and the epitome of the British upper class.

As the pair’s friendship blooms, Oliver finds himself growing increasingly attached to Felix and his family’s high-flying lifestyle. When he joins the Cattons that summer on their sprawling family estate, he’s in for an experience he’ll never forget.