Every Jacob Elordi Movie And TV Show That Shows Off His Versatility
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Vote up the Jacob Elordi projects that best showcase his talent.
In recent years, Jacob Elordi has appeared in many movies and TV series, showing off his versatility and talents. The Australian actor started working in his home country, but soon started working in US projects as well. Most people know him for two radically different yet popular teen-focused projects: The Kissing Booth franchise, where he played the romantic interest, and Euphoria, where his character is not the most beloved in the show. The actor has always accepted challenging roles to prove he can do all kinds of characters, and 2023 was the year he started to show his acting talents in movies. Some felt he was one of the biggest 2024 Golden Globe snubs for his role in Saltburn, and others believe his Elvis was the best representation of the King in the last few years.
What's your your favorite Jacob Elordi performance that shows how many different kinds of characters he can play? Do you love to hate Nate Jacobs in Euphoria? Did you fall in love with The Kissing Booth’s Noah? Or are you more interested in his embodiment of the British elite in Saltburn?
- 116 VOTESPhoto: HBO
What It's About: Euphoria tells the story of a group of teenagers in today’s Los Angeles and how they deal with love, sex, depression, and addiction. The main focus is on Rue (Zendaya), a teenager trying to manage her drug dependency. She's surrounded by a large ensemble of unique characters like Jules (Hunter Schafer), Nate (Elordi), Cassie (Sydney Sweeney), Maddy (Alexa Demie), and Fez (Angus Cloud).
His Role: Nate Jacobs is the closest thing the show has to a villain. This repressed jock is certainly one of the more frightening characters, with his seeming lack of a moral center or care for anyone else. On top of that, he's got many anger issues, and is the poster boy for toxic masculinity.
Why It's Worth A Watch: Euphoria has received plenty of acclaim for its style and especially for Zendaya's leading performance (she won the Emmy for Outstanding Lead Actress in a Drama Series twice for the first two seasons). For Elordi fans, Nate Jacobs is one of the greatest love-to-hate-him characters on TV. Though he's manipulative, egocentric, and aggressive, there’s still some repression and regret in his eyes. The character benefits from good writing, but only an actor like Elordi could show the many cracks in this theoretically perfect jock with good looks and money.
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- 217 VOTESPhoto: Netflix
What It's About: Elle (Joey King) is best friends with Lee (Joel Courtney) and has a secret crush on his bad-boy older brother Noah (Elordi). When Elle and Noah kiss in a kissing booth, they start dating - secretly, so as to not hurt Lee. The three-film series then delves into their long-distance relationship as he goes to Harvard, and she’s in her last year of high school and must decide if he wants to go to Harvard for Noah or to Berkeley with Lee.
His Role: Elordi plays Noah, the dangerous-cool love interest, who's also smart enough to get into Harvard. Over the course of the three films, he’s the perfect boyfriend, even when he breaks up with Elle - he only does it because he thinks it's best for her and her future.
Why It's Worth A Watch: The first Kissing Booth was Elordi’s first movie and the one that presented him to a new generation of people who still love him. This franchise also shows off his effortless charisma and looks, even if it might not have been the biggest acting challenge. Elordi is now a bit embarrassed about this film franchise, which he calls “ridiculous.” Without The Kissing Booth, though, he probably wouldn’t be getting the opportunities he’s been offered since.
More The Kissing Booth- #341 of 473 onThe 400+ Best Chick Flicks Ever
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- 315 VOTESPhoto: Amazon MGM Studios
What It's About: Oliver (Barry Keoghan) is a poor scholarship kid at Oxford University, who befriends Felix (Elordi), a rich and wildly popular guy on campus. When Oliver finds out of the death of his father, Felix feels bad and invites him to spend the summer at his family's luxurious estate. The longer Oliver spends with Felix and his relatives, the more he begins to show a darker side of his nature, hinting that he hasn't been entirely truthful about his intentions.
His Role: Felix, the charismatic kid, comes from a family so rich that money will never be a problem for him. He has a good heart and zero street smarts and befriends Oliver, almost out of pity, as the poor kid’s life is in shambles and has a dark past. Oliver develops an obsession with Felix much like The Talented Mr. Ripley, where it’s not clear if Oliver is in love with him or wants to be him - quite possibly both.
Why It's Worth A Watch: Elordi is perfectly cast here, since he's just as effortlessly charismatic and magnetic as Felix. He makes it easy for the audience to see why Oliver is so drawn to Felix, because they're drawn to him, too. The actor is also great at showing the character's self-entitlement and upper-class blind spots. Even if Keoghan has the more flashy role, the movie wouldn’t work without Elordi’s more subdued style. The actor received his first BAFTA nomination for this performance.
- 410 VOTES
The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee
Photo: Transmission FilmsWhat It's About: Paul Hogan, AKA the star of the 1986 cinematic sensation Crocodile Dundee, is about to be knighted by the Queen and wants to restore his reputation as being something more than the Australian stereotype that gave him notoriety in the ‘80s. The character and actor, surprisingly, earned an Oscar nomination for Best Writing for the original Crocodile Dundee film in 1987, so this movie, with Hogan playing himself, is an amusing romp letting him prove that he’s still “got it.”
His Role: Elordi plays Chase, Paul Hogan’s son. He’s a 20-something aerobics instructor who loves his dad and is proud of him no matter what.
Why It's Worth A Watch: Although Elordi's role is small, it’s a good one. He’s allowed to be warm, and even funny - something that's not often included in the complicated, brooding characters he's excelled at playing. Chase cracks some good one-liners and shows his affection for his dad. The movie as a whole didn't get very warm reviews, but it's a fun watch for fans who want to see the Australian actor actually playing an Australian character.
- 526 VOTESPhoto: A24
What It's About: Directed by the great Sofia Coppola, this biographical drama follows Priscilla Presley (Cailee Spaeny), the young woman who started dating rock and roll legend Elvis (Elordi) when she was 14 years old. Priscilla tries to grow and evolve as the years go by, even if her husband isn’t always on board with her plans of being something more than “the wife.”
His Role: Elordi plays the real man behind the “King of rock and roll,” showing off a darker side than many other fictional works about the musician do. For many, he’s a rockstar, but at home, he’s much more of a controlling, jealous, bad husband who starts getting addicted to alcohol and pills.
Why It's Worth A Watch: This performance might be the best of Elordi’s career, proving he’s ready for more complicated, layered, characters. He certainly has the charisma to sell himself as Elvis, what works better is how the actor shows the darker, more mundane sides of the rock star. He's not just a celebrity, he's also a philandering husband who wants to control every aspect of his wife’s life. Elordi conveys all of this while also acting out the speech patterns and mannerisms of one of the most parodied people in the world, making it all fit into one coherent character. That's no easy feat.
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- 613 VOTES
2 Hearts
Photo: Freestyle ReleasingWhat It's About: This movie intertwines two stories about lovers. On one side are college students Chris (Elordi) and Sam (Tiera Skovbye), and on the other, the other, adults Jorge (Adan Canto) and Leslie (Radha Mitchell). Each story has its own moments of beauty and sadness, and they remain seemingly disconnected before they get mixed in the final third of the film in a twist that could be part of a Nicholas Sparks novel.
His Role: Chris is a college student who falls in love with Sam. He gets a job as a firefighter, and then he and Sam get married, with a full life as a couple in front of them. Everything's going great, until he passes out due to an unknown illness.
Why It's Worth A Watch: Elordi is always a perfect romantic lead, and here he proves it as his chemistry with Skovbye is great. He also narrates the movie and gives the appropriate tone and weight to what’s happening to him in the film. This movie might be a bit melodramatic, but the actor holds the tone and mood changes together while showing he can anchor a film.
- 77 VOTESPhoto: Hulu
What It's About: Deep Water is a psychosexual thriller, directed by Adrian Lyne of Fatal Attraction fame, about the relationship between Vic (Ben Affleck) and Melinda (Ana de Armas). They have an open marriage, and she has extramarital affairs. Although Vic says he’s cool with them as he loves her and wants them to stay together, once her lovers start disappearing, he becomes the principal suspect.
His Role: Elordi plays Charlie, Melinda’s piano teacher and one of her lovers. His whole personality, more or less, is being young and hot. After going to a party with Melinda and Vic, he suspiciously drowns in the pool, adding to the mystery of what happens to all Melinda’s lovers.
Why It's Worth A Watch: This marked one of Elordi's first project alongside A-list stars, and he doesn't look out of place. Although his character doesn't last long, the actor makes his mark as the most memorable of Melinda’s affairs.
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- 81 VOTES
The Mortuary Collection
Photo: ShudderWhat It's About: The Mortuary Collection is an anthology horror film where a mortician, Montgomery Dark (Clancy Brown), tells some horror stories to a possible future employee. All those stories are dark and scary. Why? Because the small town of Raven’s End, where the mortuary is located, has a supernatural past.
His Role: Elordi plays Jake, the lead character in the second story, “Unprotected." In the 1960s, Jake is a jock who just wants to up his number of female conquests so his frat brothers revere him. When sleeping with Sandra (Ema Horvath), he removes his condom during the encounter, without her knowing. The problem is, the next morning, he’s the one who’s pregnant - with a supernatural being.
Why It's Worth A Watch: Jake is cocky and full of himself on the surface, but has insecurities underneath, and that's a type Elordi always plays perfectly. This is his first excursion into the horror genre, and he plays the aghast “I can't believe this is happening to me” sentiment with aplomb. This movie makes a strong case for Elordi to do more horror and sci-fi in the future. Besides his segment, the rest of the film is also a great watch for anyone looking for a good spook.
- 91 VOTES
The Sweet East
Photo: UtopiaWhat It's About: Lilian (Talia Ryder) is a high school student who, on a trip to Washington DC, gets lost and starts a surreal journey around the area. She ends up staying with some shady characters, becomes the subject of a manhunt, and even gets cast in a film while walking down the street. Throughout it all, she encounters weirder and weirder characters and jumps from one story to the next, as the film paints a sad portrait of America.
His Role: Elordi plays Ian, a famous actor who strikes up a flirtatious friendship with Lilian as they shoot a movie together. He’s a bit full of himself, and they even get photographed by paparazzi who sell those pictures, implying she’s his new lover.
Why It's Worth A Watch: Playing a famous, eccentric, pretentious, dumber-than-he-thinks actor, Elordi is absolutely in on he joke, and having a blast mocking his own profession. The actor has started using his star power to appear in smaller indie films and give them some recognition while also playing new kinds of characters, as he does here, to great effect.
- 101 VOTES
Swinging Safari
Photo: Becker Film GroupWhat It's About: In a small town in Australia in the 1970s, a whale washes ashore on their beach, making news headlines. The story is told through Jeff Marsh’s (Atticus Rob) eyes, a 14-year-old who films everything, has a crush on the neighbor, and discovers his parents and their neighbors are having swinging parties.
His Role: Elordi plays Rooster, the boyfriend of Jeff’s sister, Bec (Chelsea Glaw). He's well-intentioned, funny, and not that bright.
Why It's Worth A Watch: Elordi’s comic timing and comedic skills are still some of his secret weapons, and he doesn’t get many opportunities to use them. In this early film role, he shows off that softer side. Even if it’s a small role, the character is both funny and endearing, and the actor’s sheer commitment makes it much more memorable than it has any right to be.
- 114 VOTES
He Went That Way
Photo: Vertical EntertainmentWhat It's About: He Went That Way is a 2023 drama based on the real-life story of serial killer Larry Raines, who ended the lives of five people in Michigan, but spared the life of an animal trainer (who was transporting a chimpanzee) with whom he spent a day together. This story details a fictionalized version of what happened that day.
His Role: Elordi plays Bobby Falls, a fictionalized version of Raines. He hitchhikes until he's picked up by Ian (Zachary Quinto), then plays out elements of a road trip film and a cat-and-mouse game without Ian knowing it.
Why It's Worth A Watch: In this film, Elordi breaks bad and plays a real-life criminal, a must for every heartthrob actor trying to prove they’re more than good looks. Elordi also served as an executive producer, so it looks like he was searching for roles to change his image and exercise new acting muscles. He certainly succeeds in that regard, and although the film wasn't well-received by critics, it's a treat to watch Elordi in a two-hander with another capable actor like Quinto.
