“I’m Going To Be The Hottest King Of The Fairies” Says Jacob Elordi
Australian heartthrob Jacob Elordi has carved out a successful career in US movies and TV series. He plays the lead love interest in Netflix’s The Kissing Booth franchise and is part of the main cast of HBO’s Euphoria. It may come as a surprise, though, that Elordi was bullied and called gay in school because of his acting passion, reports Out.
A SERIOUS ACTOR WHO LOVES THEIR CRAFT
Elordi was born in Brisbane where he graduated from an all-boys private school. An environment such as this can often be tricky for young men who pursue the arts. Until one makes it big in the industry, acting and drama aren’t particularly seen as masculine career pursuits. Although Elordi is seen now as a heartthrob, it wasn’t always this way.
In an interview with GQ, he says, “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 theatre.”
In school, when Elordi landed the part of Oberon King Of The Fairies in A Midsummer Night’s Dream it was an opportunity for him to transgress the masculine expectations that he was accustomed to. “When they said I was gay, I remember leaning into the makeup,” he says. “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.”
As much as society likes to believe it’s progressed, high school will always be high school. For an actor like Elordi who is accustomed to playing hyper-masculine characters, embracing femininity at that early age challenges the rigid gender lines that are tacitly accepted. “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,” says Elordi.
“How could you label sport as masculine? How does your sexuality inform your prowess as an athlete, or your prowess as a performer?”
Toxic masculinity is an albatross around the neck of countless young men who are too afraid to explore interests that fall beyond the traditional scope. As earnest as Elordi comes across, it is necessary for young men to show this vulnerability and express how little sexuality or gender has to do with a passion for the arts.
