Jacob Elordi Calls The Kissing Booth Trilogy ‘Ridiculous’: 'I Didn't Want to Make Those Movies'

Jacob Elordi may have The Kissing Booth trilogy to thank for launching his career, but that doesn’t mean he looks back fondly on the experience.

Elordi, 26, reflected on his 2018 breakout role in the first film of the teen romance trilogy for GQ’s Men of the Year issue, revealing, “I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies.”

“Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape,” the actor added of the trio of films, which were adapted from Beth Reekles' 2012 novel of the same name.

He played bad boy football star Noah Flynn in the films, the love interest of leading lady Elle Evans (Joey King) and older brother of her best friend, Lee Flynn (Joel Courtney).

The Kissing Booth marked one of Elordi's first films, but after signing on for the two sequels, the Australian actor felt dissatisfied to say the least. 

“My ‘one for them,’ I’ve done it,” he told the outlet of making the film, referring to the concept of grin and bearing through it in the hopes of scoring a better project down the line. Elordi described that as “a trap” because “it can become 15 for them, none for you. You have no original ideas and you’re dead inside. So it’s a fine dance."

The Euphoria star also shared his two cents on how he feels about the backlash he’s faced for expressing his regret over the role — including being told he’s pretentious for sharing his opinion.

“How is caring about your output pretentious?” he said, adding, “But not caring, and knowingly feeding people s---, knowing that you’re making money off of people’s time, which is literally the most valuable thing that they have. How is that the cool thing?” 

Now, Elordi said he thinks the reason why he’s “so happy” is because he's working on projects that fulfill him creatively, like Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn.

This isn’t the first time Elordi has openly expressed regret over The Kissing Booth movies. Last year, he told GQ Hype that he fought back against the film’s team over certain creative decisions that changed his character from the book. 

"I remember saying, 'He smokes in the book. I need to smoke. He needs to have cigarettes. He's a bad boy," Elordi said, adding that his request was shut down.

"I was like, 'This is bulls---!' I remember going to war for it," he continued. "I was like, 'Are we lying to the f---ing millions of 14-year-olds out there? This guy smokes nicotine. It says here on page four – look!' I imagine people were just like, 'Jesus f---ing Christ. Is this guy serious?' "

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After working on the trio of Netflix films, Elordi scored a role as Nate Jacobs in HBO’s Euphoria. Following Euphoria — the third season of which is slated to premiere in 2025 — he has expanded further into film, too, with this year’s Priscilla and Saltburn.

There’s one role he was not so open to, though, which he shared with GQ: Superman. 

Of the possibility of playing a superhero, he said, “I don’t see myself having any interest in that. I like to make what I would watch, and I get very restless watching those movies.”

“Well, they asked me to read for Superman,” he added. “That was immediately, ‘No, thank you.’ That’s too much. That’s too dark for me.”