I don’t know if Jacob Elordi’s turns in Priscilla and Saltburn will be enough to make the young actor a movie star in an era that has all but given up on them. But, regardless of the current landscape, it’s hard to⭕ imagine two roles that could do a better job of making au♐diences view an actor as a movie star.
That’s because in both of Elordi’s first major theatrical film roles, the Euphoria star is presented as the object of intense desire. We don’t just see the appeal, we don’t just see that he’s handsome and really tall. More thaℱn that, both the eponymous Priscilla Presley and Saltburn’s Oliver Quick see Elordi’s characters as the key to fixing all their problems. He isn’t just a good-looking, charismatic guy. In both films, he’s presented as salvation from a normal, boring life.
In Sofia Coppola’s Presley biop🦩ic, Elordi takes on a role that is beyond iconic, stepping into the blue suede shoes of Elvis Presley. And, in Saltburn, Elordi is Felix Catton, a kind-hearted but clueless Oxford student who comes from obscene wealth. During his first year at uni, Felix meets Barry Keoghan’s Oliver, a cunning student who comes from a less luxurious background.
In both films, Elordi’s presence is the promise of a ticket out. Priscilla is stuck, far away from her U.S. home, on a German military base with her parents. Elvis is drawn to her because she reminds him of home, but she’s drawn to the much older pop star because she thinks that being with him will fulfill all of her dreams. Coppola and director of photography Philippe Le Sourd make her life in Germany gray, but add more color when the young protagonist gets to visit Elvis in the States. Though the movie explores tꦅhe dark side of her relationship with the rockstar, the character (and Elordi’s presence) injects life and color into the movie.
Elordi rose to prominence on HBO's Euphoria and in Netflix's The Kissing Booth movies.
Saltburn similarly frames Felix as the path to excit⛄ement and a good life. This is true from the first moments, which flash forward to show key moments in Oliver’s relationship with Felix. We see him dancing, smiling, being playful and beautiful. The movie is presenting Elordi’s performance as a star-making turn before it’s even begun.
There are a lot of different forms that movie stars can take, and 🦋different actors have found wildly varied paths to success. Tom Hanks and Meg Ryan were lovably relatable in their ‘90s runs, the boy and girl next door. Tom Cruise has always been intensely charismatic. But, there are the outliers, too, like Michael Douglas, who made a career playing sexy scumbags. You didn’t know if you could truꦆst him, but he was appealing and slimy in equal measure.
The key to movie stardom, at its most basic level, is some s﷽ort of desirability. An old cliched description of the ideal man goes, “Men wanted to be him, women wanted to be with him.” Priscilla wants to be with Elvis, but in Saltburn, Felix appeals t♊o Oliver in both ways. And even though Oliver reveals himself to be a little freak, he’s still the audience surrogate. We see the movie through his eyes, which means that we see Elordi the way he does. That’s a powerful thing for a young actor like Elordi to tap into, and between Saltburn and Priscilla, he’s been the movie star within the context of the movie he’s starring in twice now.