'Euphoria' star Jacob Elordi says he started welcoming 'femininity' after being called 'gay' for acting
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- Jacob Elordi recalled in a new GQ interview that he was called "gay" by his school peers for acting.
- Unlike Nate in "Euphoria," who exudes toxic masculinity, Elordi said he welcomed "femininity."
- Elordi added that he stepped away from beer and sports culture as he didn't agree with labeling.
"Euphoria" star Jacob Elordi said that he started "welcoming the femininity" into his life after being called "gay" by his school peers because of his passion for acting.
In a recent GQ profile, Elordi, who is best known for his roles in the hit HBO Max series "Euphoria" and Netflix's "The Kissing Booth" trilogy, recalled how he began acting at the age of 12.
He told GQ: "From the moment I did a play, I was called gay at school, but I had this abundance of confidence in myself. Because I could do both: I was quite good at sport and I think I was quite good at theater. I felt like I was above it, or it made me feel older. It made me feel wiser."
Elordi continued: "I never was worried that my peers would think that I was less than a man. And also, there's the classic thing of I was doing plays with girl schools. I'm spending my weekends with the most beautiful women from the school next door, reading the most romantic words ever written."
The 25-year-old Australian actor also recalled playing the gender-transgressive character Oberon, the king of the fairies in Shakespeare's "A Midsummer Night's Dream."
Elordi explained that for his costume, he wore a leather jacket, rings on his fingers, purple glitter on his face, and spiked hair with pink stripes.
He told GQ he was "excited" by this role because Oberon did not follow traditional gender roles and this encouraged him to take on more subversive characters.
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"When they said I was gay, I remember leaning into the makeup," Elordi said. "I was like, if I'm going to be the King of the Fairies, I'm going to be the fucking hottest King of the Fairies you've ever seen. I started welcoming those kinds of characters. I started welcoming the femininity. I started speaking with my hands. I started really playing the thespian."
"The Kissing Booth" star continued: "I stepped away from beer culture and from sport culture, and I was like, 'Well, if you think this is gay, I'm going to be who I am when I was your friend, which is this hetero guy, but I'm going to play the arts. I'm going to do it, and I'm going to show you that's bullshit.'"
Elordi added: "I could never understand, how could you label anything, ever? How could you label sport as masculine? How does your sexuality inform your prowess as an athlete or your prowess as a performer?"
During the interview, Elordi also said that he wasn't financially stable after filming the first "Kissing Booth" movie because he was having difficulty "booking jobs."
"I think I had – I don't know, $400 or $800 left in my bank account – and 'Euphoria' was my last audition before I went home for a little while to make some money and recuperate," he explained.