Do we like Jacob Elordi?
Our score: 7 out of 10. Nothing harmful found in his words or his work, and one environmental stand, held back by an unresolved 2024 allegation and a few snappy public moments.
Elordi was born in Brisbane in 1997, the youngest of four. The family moved to Melbourne when he was 12 so his sister could attend the Australian Ballet School, and that move is what pointed him at acting. He played the Cat in the Hat in a school production of Seussical and has said that's when he knew he wanted to perform. He then moved to Los Angeles, where money was tight.
The Kissing Booth got him noticed, Euphoria made him famous as Nate Jacobs, and Saltburn and Priscilla made him a proper leading man. Frankenstein earned him his first Oscar nomination, for Best Supporting Actor. Fame hasn't sat easily: he has said he hated being a character to the public after The Kissing Booth.
On the harm check, nothing nasty turned up. He has spoken about being called gay at school for doing drama and about shrugging off the idea that sport is a masculine thing, which is a decent look. His recent projects (Frankenstein, Wuthering Heights, The Narrow Road to the Deep North) are mainstream, with no run of work alongside people who push harm in what I found. I found no statements from him on trans rights, migrants or vaccines either way, so that part of the record is thin.
On the planet, he used the Melbourne red carpet for The Narrow Road to the Deep North in 2025 to wear a Neighbours of Fish Farming shirt reading “Eating Salmon? Killing Tasmania”. Author Richard Flanagan, whose novel the series is based on and who has written a book critical of the industry, was there too. Putting your name to a campaign on a red carpet is a small act, but it was his own choice.
Wuthering Heights drew criticism over his casting as Heathcliff, because the novel describes the character as dark-skinned. Director Emerald Fennell defended the choice to The Hollywood Reporter, and Elordi backed her view that the film is her take on a classic. Where you land depends on whether you read it as a creative liberty or a missed chance, and it's a casting row rather than anything he said.
The shadow over him is from February 2024, when a Sydney radio producer alleged Elordi pushed him against a wall and put his hands on his throat after a bathwater prank. NSW Police confirmed an investigation, and the producer said he didn't want to press charges. At the time Elordi hadn't publicly commented, and I couldn't find how it ended. It stays an allegation, not a finding.