Jacob Elordi on the 'flawless' Heath Ledger scene that inspired him

The Euphoria star on his favourite Australian acting performances.

Jacob Elordi for TAG Heuer

The Euphoria star on the Australian actors that inspired him.

“You had these guys with tough exteriors who were hurting inside and displayed that,” Jacob Elordi, the 25-year-old Brisbane-born star of Euphoria, tells WISH on a luxury yacht sailing across Port Hercule.

Elordi is in Monte Carlo to celebrate his new gig as the ambassador for TAG Heuer’s coveted Monaco wristwatch. The Swiss luxury brand has a habit of aligning itself with revered, studious actors like Ryan Gosling, Patrick Dempsey, and Steve McQueen (who launched Monaco to icon status with his performance in the 1970 film Le Mans.) 

Steve McQueen, Le Mans, 1970

It’s fitting that the Monaco baton be passed on to Elordi, who seems to approach acting with monastic discipline. His stage heroes include James Dean and Marlon Brando. Men, who exuded, he says, “emotional availability.” 

“There’s this James Dean quote: `I’ve got Marlon Brando in one hand and Montgomery Clift in the other. How could I lose?’ So it’s like sensitivity and brute force,” he says. “There’s something about that I think is really interesting, especially for men, because I think there’s a duality of that in most young men.”

Jacob Elordi for TAG Heuer

Elordi, perpetually brooding, loosens up when Australian actors come up in conversation. He begins rattling off his favourite acting performances, namechecking the likes of Joel Edgerton (Animal Kingdom) and David Wenham (The Lord of the Rings.) There is one performance that eclipses all.

“The pencil scene,” he says. 

He is, of course, referring to Heath Ledger’s revelatory, much-imitated, performance as The Joker in Christopher Nolan’s The Dark Knight. The squicky scene where Ledger makes a pencil “disappear” into the head of a thug. 

“I know that movie back to front,” he says. “I’ve seen that film… I couldn’t even tell you how many times, but it changes each viewing. The pencil scene was what jarred everyone, because you hadn’t really seen anything like that and you definitely didn’t expect it from a superhero picture. That sticks with me, but every scene in that movie is flawless.”

Succession actor Jeremy Strong, who plays the series’ compelling and incompetent eldest son Kendall Roy, is also a big influence on Elordi, who calls him “a beast”, that “goes so hard in the paint.” 

Elordi’s career trajectory is a weird one. He shot to fame overnight following the release of his first breakthrough hit The Kissing Booth, a pulpy, straight-to-Netflix romcom (one that we all enjoyed a little more than we’re willing to let on.) Don’t knock it, Matthew McConaughy was the reigning king of 2000s rom coms before earning his “serious actor” stripes in True Detective and The Dallas Buyers Club.

Elordi consolidated his early success with his performance as the tormented, broken Nate on HBO drama Euphoria. There’s a particular scene, where Nate and his father are in a heated physical and verbal altercation that climaxes with Nate violently slamming his head into a hardwood floor. 

“It definitely hurt,” says Elordi. “But we had a great stunt master, Jeff Barnett, and we had mats on the floor. I definitely still went for it, but all the precautions were taken to make sure I was OK. I just feel a little weird ever since…” 

Read Andrew Mcutchen's full story in WISH, out on Friday with The Australian.