Jacob Elordi Recalls His Excitement About Meeting Paul Schrader: ‘The Little Kid That Goes to the Cinema in Me Was Freaking Out’:

Jacob Elordi continues to burnish his indie film credentials between seasons of “Euphoria.” This fall season has seen the young actor appear in several buzzy festival hits, including Emerald Fennel’s “Saltburn” and Sofia Coppola’s “Priscilla.” And with a slate of projects that includes a meaty role opposite Richard Gere in Paul Schrader‘s upcoming drama “Oh Canada,” Elordi does not appear to be slowing down any time soon.

IndieWire caught up with Elordi on the red carpet of the New York Film Festival, where he was on hand to promote his turn as Elvis Presley in “Priscilla.” The role recently catapulted Austin Butler to stardom after his acclaimed performance in Baz Luhrmann’s “Elvis,” but Elordi avoided the distraction of watching other actors play the rock legend.

“Not portrayals, no,” Elordi said when asked if he spent time watching other cinematic takes on Elvis. “I tried to stay away from anything that sort of wasn’t the man himself.”

Elordi also looked towards the future, expressing his excitement about working with Schrader and Gere on “Oh Canada.” While he couldn’t share many details about the project, he revealed that his recent successes did not dull the thrill of meeting the “Master Gardener” director for the first time.

“I met Paul on Zoom after reading for his film,” he said. “The little kid that goes to the cinema a lot in me was freaking out.”

“Oh Canada” stars Gere as an aging documentarian who reckons with his legacy in a final interview before he dies. The interview is filmed by his former student, played by Elordi, who serves as a stand-in for his younger self. In another recent interview, Schrader elaborated on the relationship between the two men.

“I like the kind of top spin of doing the dying gigolo, the emaciated man in the wheelchair, bald and sick, and trying to get his life straight. Now I have to cast a younger version of him,” Schrader said. “So there’ll be two characters. When you package these kinds of films, you have to keep in mind a little bit of the buzz, what I call the top spin. Bret Easton Ellis said to me the other day, ‘I was told that you’re doing a remake of “American Gigolo”.’ I said, ‘I’m not, but if they want to think that and it can help me get money, they can think that.’”

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