Jacob Elordi is good looking, tall and Australian. He’s one of those Australian actors known for slipping into other accents with ease. To me, his “Elvis” voice was actually better than Austin Butler’s. Jacob does an American accent and a British accent so well, he works consistently in British and American productions. But he might be in the middle of a larger breakout not for playing a heartthrob or a pretty posh dude. Jacob plays the Monster in Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein, and Jacob basically had to spend hours every day in loads of prosthetics and makeup to create the look. Elordi talks about all of this and more with WSJ. Magazine. It’s actually a good read – you can tell that the interviewer kind of wanted to treat Elordi like a dumb himbo, but was surprised by his depth and good manners. Some highlights:

Taking roles like Heathcliff in ‘Wuthering Heights’: “It’s laying yourself there on the table and laying your organs out for everyone.”

He has anxieties: “I’ll go home from this conversation and I’ll just climb into bed and just be like, Why did you speak?” he tells me. Asked if he would like to do anything over in his career, he says, “Yeah, like almost every scene I’ve ever shot.”

Playing Frankenstein’s Monster: “Something really magical did happen and I am genuinely afraid to question it.” For six months, the actor spent more time in monster makeup than out of it, with muscled prosthetics layered onto his body and deep fissures painted onto his skin. The only time he had his own face back was when he slept. “I became really, really isolated in the same way that he is,” he says of the creature.

On his height: “Everyone asks the same boring questions—sincerely, I’m not upset, I’m just genuinely intrigued as to what the purpose is. People are obsessed with the most mundane things. Like, we praise mediocrity nowadays.”

Preparing for the Monster: To prepare for the role, Elordi created a scrapbook, crudely stitched together. He wrote in it with his left hand so the words would look unfamiliar. He filled the book with monstrous thoughts. “If someone got murdered in my vicinity and they picked this book up, they’d probably just put me in jail,” he says, “just in case.”

He’s a mama’s boy: The actor says he FaceTimes his mother three or four times a day. When he was little, stay-at-home mom Melissa Elordi kept an eye on her son by volunteering in his school cafeteria. Now she reads all his scripts and visits often, still fiercely protective of him. “Her sole purpose in life—self-appointed—is being a mother,” he says. He calls his father, John Elordi, “quieter than life,” “inspirational” and “a legend.” After immigrating to Australia from the Basque Country, a region that straddles the border between France and Spain, the working-class house painter took roughly 13 years to build the family’s home.

He doesn’t go to Hollywood parties: “I literally just go to my premieres.” His circle is not obsessed with fame, he says, and neither is he. “I don’t really acknowledge attention,” Elordi says. “My reality is in the start of production and the end of production, and then I go home.”

He loves American culture: Back when Elordi was in an all-boys Catholic school, he was listening to Eminem and perfecting his American accent. He worshipped L.A. Laker Kobe Bryant. “I think I just loved American culture.”

More on Emerald Fennell’s Wuthering Heights: “I think what she’s done is really perfect and super beautiful. It’s electric. And it’s also like nails on a chalkboard. It does something. It moves you in some kind of way, good or bad, but it will move you.”

Whether he wants kids: “Very much so. My whole dream is to facilitate a childhood like the one that I had,” he says. “It would just make me the happiest person in the world.”

[From WSJ. Magazine]

Man, he really doesn’t want to talk about being tall!! LMAO. It’s such a random thing to be annoyed with – how dare you ask me about my height, what mediocrity! It’s also funny because the reason why he stands out so much in Hollywood is because there are so few really tall actors, actors who are 6’5” or above. I also think he knows this Wuthering Heights version is trash and he’s trying to be polite about it. There’s a real difference in how he discusses that versus Frankenstein. Anyway, I didn’t know he was such a mama’s boy and I pity the woman who has to compete with his mom.

Photos courtesy of Backgrid, Cover Images. Cover courtesy of WSJ. Magazine.