Jacob Elordi says school peers called him ‘gay’ when he began acting

‘I started welcoming the femininity,’ said the Australian actor

Jacob Elordi has opened up about being called “gay” at school when he began acting in plays.

In a recent interview, the 25-year-old actor – who stars as high school big shot Nate Jacobs in HBO’s gritty teen drama Euphoria – spoke about his entrance into the world of acting at the age of 12.

While Elordi’s growing interest in acting coincided with time playing for the school’s rugby team in his native Australia, he said he soon began to feel the division between these worlds.

“From the moment I did a play I was called gay at school,” Elordi told GQ.

“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.”

He added: “I felt like I was above it, or it made me feel older. It made me feel wiser. I never was worried that my peers would think that I was less than a man.”

When Elordi played king of the fairies Oberon in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream at school he found acting to be transformative.

Jacob Elordi in ‘Euphoria’ (Eddy Chen/HBO)

“When they said I was gay, I remember leaning into the makeup,” he said. “I was like, if I’m going to be the King of the Fairies, I’m going to be the f***ing hottest King of the Fairies you’ve ever seen.”

“I started welcoming those kinds of characters. I started welcoming the femininity,” Elordi explained.

Last month, Stranger Things’ David Harbour revealed that he’d want Elordi to play the young Jim Hopper in a prospective prequel.

Euphoria is available to stream on HBO Max in the US and on NOW in the UK.