JACOB ELORDI

If you want a lad who can play a brooding, tall-as-a-house psycho one minute and a soft, poetic romantic the next, Jacob Elordi is absolutely flying right now. The Australian bloke could have easily just stuck to being a generic teen heartthrob, but he’s gone out of his way to pick some of the weirdest, grittiest, and most challenging scripts in Hollywood to prove he’s a proper actor.

Most people first spotted him looking massive and terrifying in Euphoria, playing Nate Jacobs, a high school quarterback who is an absolute monster of a human being. He was so good at being unhinged that it opened all the big doors for him. Instead of doing safe blockbuster sequels, he went full indie, playing an incredibly slick, charismatic Elvis Presley in Priscilla, and then shocking everyone in Saltburn, playing a posh, wealthy student who gets a bit too close with Barry Keoghan.

Lately, his career has gone into absolute overdrive. He’s been all over the news starring alongside Margot Robbie in Emerald Fennell’s massive, highly controversial adaptation of Wuthering Heights, playing a very modern, intense Heathcliff. He followed that right up by getting a load of Oscar buzz for putting on ten hours of prosthetics to play the Creature in Guillermo del Toro’s epic Frankenstein.

He isn’t slowing down for a breath either. He’s starring in Ridley Scott’s massive upcoming post-apocalyptic survival thriller The Dog Stars alongside Josh Brolin, and he’s just been officially invited to join the Academy as an Oscar voter. He’s a proper, hard-working talent who doesn’t care about just looking pretty for the cameras—he wants to make proper, memorable cinema. Seeing his name on the poster means you’re guaranteed something fascinating.

Insomniacs Trivia

• The Homeless Audition Nightmare: Before he bagged his life-changing role in Euphoria, Jacob was completely brassic and down to his last few dollars in Los Angeles. He was literally sleeping in the back of his car and on mates’ couches because he couldn’t afford rent. When he did his final screen test for the show, he had a single suitcase with all his worldly belongings in the parking lot, fully expecting to head back to Australia defeated if he didn’t get the gig.

• The Pirates Background Secret: Long before he was an Oscar-nominated name or leading massive Hollywood epics, Jacob got his very first taste of a big movie set by being a completely uncredited extra. When he was just seventeen, he managed to land a tiny background job as a tall soldier in Pirates of the Caribbean: Dead Men Tell No Tales while they were filming in Queensland, spending all day in a heavy wool uniform just to watch Johnny Depp work.

• The Ledger Method Inspo: Jacob has always been completely open about his acting heroes, and his biggest inspiration is fellow Aussie legend Heath Ledger. When he was preparing to play the incredibly dark and toxic Nate Jacobs in Euphoria, he kept a massive scrapbook full of Ledger’s old interview quotes and photos of The Joker in his trailer, using it as a daily reminder to push his performance into the darkest, most uncomfortable places possible.

Insomniacs Take

Jacob Elordi is just a class act who has turned into a proper heavyweight of modern cinema. In an industry full of safe, hyper-polished young actors who are absolutely terrified of looking bad or ruining their image, he actively runs towards roles that are messy, bizarre, and deeply uncomfortable. He’s got that old-school, mysterious movie-star energy that you just can’t manufacture in a lab. Whether he’s playing a gothic literary figure or a giant monster, he brings a proper, grounded honesty to the screen. He’s a massive credit to modern films, and he’s a guaranteed safe bet for a cracking watch.