Jacob Elordi just received his first Oscar nomination for his transformational performance as The Creature in Frankenstein. It’s one of an impressive nine nods for the Netflix film, with writer-director Guillermo del Toro nominated for his adaptation of the Mary Shelley novel and much of the below-the-line artisans, including del Toro regulars Dan Laustsen (cinematography) and Kate Hawley (costumes), recognized as well. This is to say, many nominated for the movie have been recognized by the Academy before. But Elordi has started a new chapter in his young, auspicious career, as he prepares to topline a studio movie next month in Wuthering Heights opposite Margot Robbie and return for the much-hyped third season of Euphoria.
“I am beside myself,” Elordi tells The Hollywood Reporter. “I am so excited. I mean, I’m 28 years old. It’s wind in the sails.” Below, he takes stock of it all.
I’m not sure where you are in the world, but did you wake up for the nominations? Walk me through the last few hours.
I was asleep. I fell asleep reading a good book, so I was comfortably asleep. My mother is with me right now, and I heard her phone ring and it woke me from my sleep, and then I heard her feet running up the stairs. She had my whole team on a group FaceTime call. Very, very, very exciting. Very sweet for all of us.
You and I have spoken about how close you felt to this character, and how much it pushed you as an actor. What’s the significance of the recognition, in the context of that?
This character for me and what is on screen is everything that I’ve wanted to say as an actor my whole life. It’s every bit of the dream that I’ve had since I was 12. It’s everything that I could possibly express of myself in a part. So in a way, the creature is the personification of a dream I had when I was very small. It means a lot to me because it’s not just a character, it’s myself. It’s myself as an actor, I suppose.
Frankenstein is up for nine Oscars. A lot of your below-the-line colleagues were recognized for their contributions.
It’s incredibly confirming and it makes me super grateful to the Academy and to the movie industry because it tells me that we are looking at the right things. The same with films like Sinners that are also handmade, it’s just incredible actors, incredible artisans being recognized for real handmade cinematic work. It’s a good thing for the movies.
What are some of the performances you are excited to be in the conversation with this year?
Even down to the performances that I’m nominated with — every actor grew up on Sean Penn. I mean, that’s the bar in terms of real performance. Then Stellan Skarsgard, Benicio del Toro — these are people that I’ve read the unofficial biographies of. It’s surreal to be in esteemed company.
Guillermo was not nominated for directing despite receiving a lot of recognition along the way. You’ve become very close. Anything you want to say there?
I see that our film has nine nominations, and for him particularly adapting the screenplay, something that’s so dear and personal to him, I think that is just such an incredible achievement. All of our nominations are his nominations. None of us have these nominations without Guillermo del Toro.
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