It’s a bird, it’s a plane, it’s Jacob Elordi probably never playing a superhero.
The “Priscilla” actor who portrays Elvis Presley in the Sofia Coppola indie film told GQ that he turned down reading for a Superman role for an unnamed project.
“Well, they asked me to read for Superman,” Elordi said in a cover story for the Man of the Year issue. “That was immediately, ‘No, thank you.’ That’s too much. That’s too dark for me.”
When asked if he has thought about joining a superhero franchise, Elordi said, “Not particularly, no.”
“I’ve always been told to say a rounded answer or my agent will get mad at me. ‘Anything can happen!’” Elordi said. “And obviously anything can happen, but at this stage in my life, 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.”
He added, “And then I’m supposed to finish it with: ‘Never say never!’”
The “Saltburn” actor may not be portraying Clark Kent soon, but he did look back on another franchise that he put into the “one for them, one for me” category that he is now wary of when selecting roles: Elordi’s stateside breakout performance in YA adaptation “The Kissing Booth” franchise.
“That one’s a trap as well,” Elordi said. “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. My ‘one for them,’ I’ve done it.”
Elordi’s fellow next generation A-listers Jeremy Allen White and Paul Mescal have similarly shown caution toward superhero movies amid the onslaught of DCU and Marvel productions. “The Bear” actor White told GQ UK that he had an attitude” about joining the MCU and botched a meeting.
“I had a meeting for a kind of Marvel-y movie, and I had an attitude,” White said. “I think I played it all wrong.” He said he told the Marvel executives, “‘Tell me about why should I do your movie,’” which did not come off well. “They were like, ‘Fuck you,’” White recalled, “and I was like, ‘Right on.’”
White continued, “I am confused at how the pinnacle of an actor’s career has ended up in that place. They get really good filmmakers to do those movies and obviously they get really good actors to do those movies. […] I’m just buying myself more time and being able to do what I really love to do. And that’s very much how I view these things.”
In contrast, Mescal said last year that he doesn’t have the “patience required” to be part of a decades-long franchise. “I think sometimes you have to make a decision to let that go for five, 10, 15 years and that would be really sad,” the Academy Award nominee said. “I know that if I make that decision, I’m not going to wake up in five years’ time and be surprised I didn’t get time off to go to Turkey and make an independent film for two months. Knowledge is power.”
