One of the biggest up and coming stars in Hollywood is Jacob Elordi. After starring in Netflix’s The Kissing Booth, and then booking a role as psychopath high schooler Nate Jacobs in HBO’s Euphoria, Elordi has shot to stardom and his career is just getting started. His Wikipedia page is only 280 words long and he is a fairly private person, so why is it that everyone seems to think they have him all figured out?
Elordi was born in 1997 in Brisbane, Australia. He booked his first big role in 2018 with the book to movie trilogy The Kissing Booth, starring alongside Joey King–who he would go on to date. His acting in these movies was basically what you would expect from a teen movie. I personally have not seen the films, but have seen clips and they overall seem like corny rom-coms. In 2019, when he was cast in the HBO show Euphoria people did not think he had the acting chops and boy did he prove them wrong. Elordi’s performance as psychopathic narcissist Nate Jacobs is one of the best I have ever seen, and I am stunned that he has so far been snubbed by the major awards. He has booked a handful of high-profile roles that have yet to be released such as Elvis Presley in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla, and a ten-episode limited series about World War II. He is already extremely successful even with a few projects under his belt. So once again, why does everyone seem to think they have him all figured out?
On social media, one of the biggest conversations that I’ve seen about Elordi is that he only plays psychotic characters therefore he must be psychotic himself. This statement is so confusing to me. His two most popular characters are polar opposites of one another; one being a rom-com boyfriend and the other being a troubled teenager with anger issues. This assertion also confuses me because Elordi is nothing but charming in all of his interviews. Fans that have met him say that he is lovely and kind–and there is video evidence to prove this. It really makes me sad to see how people just assume they know who he is as a person. Now of course, celebrities are notorious for perpetuating a kind demeanor when they are actually awful people, but Elordi keeps to himself and I don’t peg him as someone that is faking his sweet demeanor. The comment that I always see is that “he plays Nate a little too well.” It’s almost as if his job is an actor. No one says this about other actors who play complicated and scary characters so why does Elordi get the short end of the stick?
The other conversation that I see about Elordi is that he is a massive playboy who always has to have a woman and never slows down. Now, Elordi is extremely handsome. He is 6’5” and has incredible fashion sense so it is no shocker that he seems to always have a girlfriend. But here’s the thing, he has only had four public girlfriends with only two of them actually being confirmed by the actor. As I mentioned, he dated his Kissing Booth co-star, Joey King, from 2017-2018. They confirmed this relationship and attended events together, but broke up. He wasn’t publicly linked to anyone until early 2020 (which would be two full years of him being publicly single) when he was spotted with his Euphoria co-star, Zendaya. Nothing was ever confirmed but the two were spotted on dates multiple times. There is a lot of speculation that this was PR for the show, but the relationship seemed to be extremely shortlived and they broke up after around two months of dating. Somehow, a rumor that he cheated on her started, but there is absolutely zero proof to corroborate this claim. In September of the same year, he began seeing supermodel Kaia Gerber. This was his only other confirmed relationship as they posted photos on their Instagrams and Gerber spoke about him in interviews. The two dated for over a year until their breakup in November 2021. Gerber would move on with Pete Davidson as Elordi started dating Olivia Jade around the same time. The two were together for a few months before calling it quits in Summer 2022. Once again, this relationship was never confirmed. So that’s the summary. Four public girlfriends in six years as he is currently publicly single. However, on social media everyone consistently talks about how he is a serial dater and are questioning “who is he going to date next?” It reminds me of the conversations that are had about Taylor Swift and the number of men that she has dated. Normal people date frequently and can have many different partners, but how is a 25 year-old-man having four girlfriends at different times across a six-year-period controversial? Not that being a serial dater is a bad thing, but I would certainly not characterize Elordi as one and criticize him for his dating habits.
Overall, I think for whatever reason, people have picked Elordi as their Hollywood punching bag. He seems like a really nice person and it helps that he is so attractive. So what if he is quiet and not as open as other celebrities, he doesn’t owe the general public anything, when it comes to his personal life. But the persona that he displays is a fun-loving and caring one, so yes, I would say that Jacob Elordi is misunderstood and you should give him a second chance.