We had some questions about the Jacob Elordi portrait. The artist answered

Artist Caroline Zilinsky didn’t know much about Hollywood it-boy Jacob Elordi when she started painting his portrait for Australia’s most famous art prize.

She hadn’t seen him in two of last year’s biggest films, Saltburn and Priscilla, the generation-defining series Euphoria, or the hugely popular Netflix trilogy The Kissing Booth. She also hadn’t read The Hollywood Reporter article that declared him part of the “New A-List”.

Artist Caroline Zilinsky applies the finishing touches to her Archibald portrait A Lucid Heart - The Golden Age of Jacob Elordi.Credit: Don Arnold

But she certainly grasped the full scale of the Australian actor’s fame when her portrait of him, unveiled as an Archibald Prize finalist at the Art Gallery of NSW, triggered global headlines and a rush of feedback from Elordi’s fans.

Zilinsky, an established Sydney artist who won the Portia Geach Memorial Award in 2020, said a friend had shown Elordi her work before suggesting he would be a good subject to paint.

A few days later, Zilinsky sketched Elordi, 26, in a make-up trailer in Stanwell Tops, NSW, on the set of the mini-series adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s novel The Narrow Road to the Deep North.

“All I do is paint – I don’t know what’s going on,” Zilinsky said. “I didn’t want to delve too deeply into who he was because I wanted to paint my experience of him and the interaction between him and us. I’m so glad I did that without knowing the scope of who he was. I have slowly come to fathom how famous he is.”

Caroline Zilinsky didn’t fully comprehend Elordi’s fame when she painted his portrait.

It was the first time Elordi had sat for a portrait. They had one hour together in the trailer before Zilinsky spent the rest of the day watching him on set. He made an impression on her as a well-read, deep thinker, and she added, far more than his good looks.

“He was warned numerous times that he was not going to be painted as a pretty boy,” Zilinsky said. “Because he was OK with that, it gave me complete freedom to paint how I wanted to.”

Zilinsky noticed that Elordi was reading a copy of Albert Camus’ 1942 The Myth of Sisyphus – a philosophical essay that draws on a figure from Greek mythology destined to push a boulder up a hill for eternity – and the pair talked about literature.

The book became central to Zilinsky’s portrait, A Lucid Heart – The Golden Age of Jacob Elordi, which takes its title from a phrase Camus uses.

The boulder from the myth is transformed into a stone in Elordi’s hands, and the book lies open on a shelf in the background alongside an airbrush machine, a dog tag prop, a make-up box, power generator, and a camera that Elordi’s sister used to film the sitting. Zilinsky found a horseshoe on a stone while on the set, and the shape also features.

Jacob Elordi as Felix in Emerald Fennell’s film Saltburn.Credit: Amazon Prime Video

When she arrived home, she discovered a leech on her leg, and the bloodsuckers form a frame around Elordi in the painting. And whose idea was it for him to pose topless?

“He had a shirt on, and he said, ‘do you want it on or off?’ and I said, ‘off’ – I’m not missing that,” Zilinsky jokes, before adding, “the more a person disrobes for a painting, the more vulnerable a person becomes.”

Zilinsky said the make-up trailer provided a transitory space between reality and imagination, where Elordi moved from man to character. In the portrait, he is encircled by shadowy figures, a reference to the elusiveness of mass audiences.

They became a little less elusive when Zilinsky’s portrait was unveiled and Elordi shared it on Instagram with his nearly 14 million followers, dividing fans whose responses ranging from, “Idk what this is but I love you” to “pov the picture you pull up to show your friends who you’re talking about and have to say ‘chill he’s better looking in person i swear!’” . Tabloids around the world also got in the action, including the UK Metro which ran with the headline “Oh Lordi! Is it really you?”

Elordi as Nate, with Alex Demie as Maddy, in season 2 of Euphoria.Credit: HBO

Zilinsky’s gallery’s website crashed from the traffic and close to 800,000 people looked at her Instagram. “It’s been insane. I had to sleep for a whole day straight. I don’t know what to do. I wanted to throw my phone out the window because I’m not big on social media,” Zilinsky said.

Usually sensitive to criticism of her work, Zilinsky said she appreciated that the portrait had connected with people who wouldn’t otherwise be interested in art. Her main goal, she said, was to capture Elordi’s essence as she perceived it, and for him to see himself in his work. Zilinsky said she still hadn’t seen any of his films or TV shows, and she probably wouldn’t, happy for the Elordi of her imagination to remain the only one she knows.

As for Elordi, he loved the work and now owns it. His response after seeing it for the first time? “Let’s hope that the rock stays that size.”

The Archibald, Wynne & Sulman Prizes 2024 are at the Art Gallery of NSW until September 8.