For Jacob Elordi, every role was a matter of time

Graphic by Easton Clark, Photo Editor

Jacob Elordi took the stage at the Newport Beach Film Festival to record a live episode of The Hollywood Reporter’s podcast “Awards Chatter” and to accept the Maverick Award, presented by the festival’s founder, Gregg Schwenk. 

Elordi walked the audience through his career and his newest film, “Frankenstein,” but my biggest takeaway from the conversation with “Awards Chatter” host Scott Feinberg would be how he embodies the importance of timing when it comes to pursuing an acting career. 

He shared how, growing up as a 6-foot-5, physically fit individual, he could never escape being seen as an athlete, until an athletic injury altered his path and changed his life. 

“I ended up breaking my back playing rugby when I was 16 … and that was the best way to never have to play sport again,” Elordi said. 

This halt in his athletic life allowed him to fully focus on his true passion: theater. And he could do it away from the judgmental eyes of his fellow athletes. An injury that would have stunted most people's ambitions instead gave him newfound freedom. 

After high school, Elordi then decided to pursue acting full-time and attended an acting school in Melbourne, Australia. Unfortunately, a rule at this school prevented students from auditioning for acting gigs while studying there, as the school wanted them to focus on building their craft. He ended up renting the theater spaces and staying up late into the night to shoot self-tapes, as he refused to let the time and resources he had go to waste. The school, however, eventually discovered his rule-breaking. 

“When they asked me to leave, the next Friday, I booked 'The Kissing Booth,’” he said. 

Elordi quickly became the newest heartthrob, and he took the internet by storm. He made it out to LA and felt like the absolute talk of the town, until the hype began to die down, and he had his next big realization. 

“You don’t just get given movies after you make a movie,” said Elordi.

Elordi stayed out in LA despite the adversities he was facing, and his patience was tested. He even reached a point where he was living out of his car on Mulholland Drive, trying to chase the dream that many people in Hollywood pursue, including Elordi’s friends at the time. 

Elordi shared that he was always filming self-tapes for them, and even helped a bunch of his friends film one for the character Nate Jacobs in “Euphoria.” On a whim, he also submitted a self-tape for Nate at the last minute. That same week, a very broke Elordi decided it was time to take a break from the Hollywood dream. 

“I told my manager, ‘I think I have to go home for a while. I’ve been here too long’ … and then the next call was for ‘Euphoria’,” he said. “Everyone has these stories, but it’s because they’re true. That was going to be the last audition I did before leaving … I got really nervous. My face went red … I butchered it. But they called me to come back.”  

Booking “Euphoria” came almost a year after wrapping “The Kissing Booth 3.” The critical success and intensity of this role allowed him to pivot from being a teen heartthrob to a serious dramatic actor, as he embodied when playing Nate Jacobs. This pivot amplified how crucial timing and being committed to his passion for acting allowed him to eventually play both Elvis Presley and Frankenstein’s monster. 

Even though Jacob Elordi has reached a point of acclaim where auditions and filming self-tapes are no longer part of his routine, he shared that timing has still played a funny role in his life when it comes to his career. He shared an anecdote when discussing the role of Elvis Presley in the movie “Priscilla,” from when he went out to eat with Sofia Coppola.

“There was a group of young girls at brunch who got excited when they saw me, and Sofia told me that’s exactly what she imagined Elvis would make girls do,” said Elordi. 

This interaction got him the role instantly. 

As the night came to a close, Elordi accepted the Maverick Award with a quiet humility that mirrored his attitude towards his entire journey. What began as a rugby injury and secret self-tapes ended with opening up the 2025 Newport Film Festival and rounds of applause. 

Everything in Elordi’s career arrived exactly when it was meant to. A much-needed reminder that the industry is never a straight line to success, but rather about trusting the space between opportunities. For him, timing didn’t just shape his career — it defined it.