The evolution of Jacob Elordi's career and recent milestones him, and his team of publicists, hit on their quest to craft a Hollywood leading man.
Jacob Elordi always had an agenda.
Timothée Chalamet and Jacob Elordi are the two names currently dominating the conversation in the cinematic world. While both have undoubtedly sparked their fair share of recent media buzz, their paths in the industry could not be more divergent.
Timothée Chalamet might have a lot going for him at the moment, but perhaps the most notable thing about him that stands the test of time is his screen presence. He singlehandedly introduced the age of dandyism to the next generation of actors and redefined what it meant to be a leading man when he starred in Call Me By Your Name alongside Army Hammer, a classic hunk, and made his costar look invisible. There is something so delicate about the way he performs. Raw and honest, his performance does not exist to satisfy an archetype, making his characters unconventionally attractive.
But this is not to be confused with the cliche of the pure talent that would get discovered in some mall. Timothée Chalamet was born and raised in Manhattan. He attended the LaGuardia High School of Music & Art and Performing Arts, where he dated Madonna’s daughter. He is half-French and speaks the language publicly. He has been in training to become the actor of his generation his entire life.
Jacob Elordi, however, faced a different hand in the game. Born without the luxury of an artful upbringing, he had to rely on more traditional charms to kickstart his career. If we rolled back the clock two decades, Jacob would have absolutely smoked Timothée. Yet, in the current landscape, his innate masculine appeal fails to give him a leg up.
But let's strip away the external layers for a moment. Despite his vast knowledge of movies, Elordi grapples with a shortfall of conveying the vulnerability demanded by his craft for the acclaim he aspires to. He may be able to deliver the male version of the female range (re: Black Swan, Pearl, Midsommar) on screen without flaw. However, it seems as though his idolization of Old Hollywood may have led him to prioritize the allure of being an actor over the essence of acting itself.
While Elordi might not have what it takes to pull off a critically acclaimed performance, at least not yet, he has a sound understanding of what that looks like, which might be considered a talent on its own: The ability to recognize good art is as rare to come by as the ability to produce it.
In Hollywood, artistic finesse isn't the sole ticket to success. L.A teems with actors maneuvering careers sans film critique skills. Some fizzle out after two CW seasons, others soar to Blockbuster wealth. Recall a Chris Pratt or Ryan Reynolds performance that truly resonated? Yeah, neither can they. Yet, their charm thrives in clever tweets and brand deals, safeguarding their relevance.
Instead of venturing into entrepreneurial endeavors to cash out on his fame, Elordi took an old-school approach to crafting his image. He wanted people to know he was different from his peers. Jacob and his team worked tirelessly to draft a version of him to mimic the actor he aspires to be recognized as, and there is something to be said about that perseverance.*
He carried a retro film camera on his first very publicly captured date with Zendaya and bashed the tween movies he made early in his career at every opportunity. He strategically dated his way through the industry and carefully stirred the pot with culturally relevant topics such as the exploitation of male actors.
Elordi radically challenged the Aussie-Hemsworth-brother stereotype he otherwise would have been grouped with from every angle. Which worked, but his master plan of becoming “the actor” did not quite land immediately. Over the years, most of these efforts either confused people, labeled him pretentious, or went unnoticed altogether.
But they eventually paid off. Elordi’s last two projects, Priscilla and Salt Burn, were the absolute tipping points of his quest for a career. He got his name associated with Sophia Coppola and an indie thriller about aristocratic greed and, somehow, managed to line up the releases of these highly anticipated female-directed movies back to back in the same calendar year. Checkmate.
Despite starring in these anticipated productions, the fact that Elordi continues to play the eye-candy, just in a more avant-garde way, might be the best punchline of it all.
*I write this in the most sincere and least satirical way possible.
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