Gen Z fell in love with him on the small screen, but with the release of Emerald Fennell’s steamy new adaptation of Wuthering Heights, the Aussie actor’s star is set to shine even brighter
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acob Elordi is Heathcliff. The 28-year-old Australian actor has scarcely been out of the headlines since his controversial casting in Emerald Fennell’s imminent adaptation of Wuthering Heights. Now, in the week of the film’s release, he’s being hailed as “the hottest man on the planet”, tipped as a future Oscar winner and household name. Not even mixed early reviews seem to be slowing the momentum.
Truly, these heights must seem wuthering to the boy from Brisbane who fell in love with acting after being cast as The Cat in The Hat. “As soon as I was singing and dancing with the big hat on, I knew that that was what I wanted to do,” Elordi said last December. But who is he, and what’s behind his rapid rise?
Heathcliff might be Elordi’s highest-profile performance to date, but Gen Z has grown up with him on their screens and there’s a case to be made he’s their defining heart-throb. Elordi’s breakout role was in Netflix’s hugely popular Kissing Booth films, in which he played the teenage protagonist’s respectful older love interest Noah Flynn between 2018 and 2021. At the same time, Elordi starred in HBO’s edgy, sex-and-drugs teen drama Euphoria as toxic jock Nate Jacobs. The contrasting roles not only showcased Elordi’s range, but set him up to be a generational crush whether your tastes ran to good guys or bad boys. He is also, famously, 6ft 5in.
