Jacob Elordi’s latest project is a return to TV with Justin Kurzel’s limited series “The Narrow Road to the Deep North,” which premiered on Prime Video last month. Following its premiere in Berlin in February, reviews raved about Elordi’s performance as 1940s war doctor Dorrigo Evans, following the Aussie story adapted from Richard Flanagan’s novel of the same name.
For his first television role following “Euphoria,” Elordi was particularly drawn in by director Kurzel, who sent him an email asking if he had interest in the project, and in turn, led him toward his most profound performance to date. Upon signing onto the series, he had 12 months to sit with the material and prepare before filming began. “I had about a year to myself to marinate in all of the period information and in the book. I had a long time, quite boringly, to just sit and think about it,” Elordi told IndieWire.
“Somewhere in that process, Justin made me a manifesto, which was this booklet of thoughts and ideas and ways that I could [embody the behavior of] the character in my own life through little physical acts, calling somebody, doing something for somebody, or tying surgical knots — little things to physicalize and get out of your own head,” he continued.
With one of the hottest rising resumes in Hollywood, this opportunity came in the midst of Elordi’s captivating performances in “Priscilla” and “Saltburn,” bonding with two of today’s buzziest filmmakers, Sofia Coppola and Emerald Fennell. “I’ve been quite lucky with the last few projects that I’ve made,” he said, reflecting of his recent roles. “To just have a talk with the filmmakers, I think something happens when you’re approaching a film from a similar place, you kind of understand each other immediately. There’s a language that you fall into as a shorthand.”
Elordi continued, “To have that happen with these great creatives recently, it’s really wonderful, but it’s also frightening too, because you always have the feeling of being an imposter. You’re kind of saying to them like, ‘What do you see me do that makes you think that I could possibly do this?’ I love being able to sit and talk to someone, not even necessarily about a project, but just about movies and about your life. That’s what making movies is to me, it’s these individual little collaborative relationships.”
During an interview with The Hollywood Reporter, “Narrow Road” producer Rachel Gardner noted that “an Australian TV series at that point in his career, it was a risk and obviously a very calculated one.” In his review of the series, IndieWire’s Ryan Lattanzio wrote that Elordi “gives the kind of brooding, Brando-esque performance he’s become known for, smartly eschewing more comfortable studio roles to instead seek daring opportunities that only build upon what’s become one of the best rising resumes in town.”
As for whether Elordi is as deliberate with his roles as the discourse makes him out to be, he remains a bit evasive. “Strangely, I’m actually not very calculated. Everything that I’ve been a part of has happened in this serendipitous sort of way, but I am a firm believer — I believe in the work and I believe in craft. Craftsmen gravitate toward each other and have this shared language,” he said.
He has long been a fan of director Kurzel, a fellow Aussie who he has looked up to since his teenage years, previously saying that “he’s like my cinema father. When you’re Australian, there’s one man that you want to work with in Australia and it’s Kurzel.” When the two started working together, the bond was both effortless and rewarding.
“He gave me a lot of a lot of freedom,” he said. “He’s really free with the work and he’s meticulous and specific, but when it comes down to action and cut, he lets the scene breathe. He lets it feel alive, there’s no real end result. The thing that’s important to him is between action and cut, and that as an actor is the most interesting, wonderful place in the world. To work with a director like him who allows that space to be alive, it was wonderful.”
Ciarán Hinds plays the older version of Elordi’s Dorrigo, set in the 1980s. The pair never did any prep or work together to have their portrayals be as thorough as possible. How did it play so seamless, though? “That was the genius of the casting from Kurzel and the rest of them,” Elordi said.
“I think he just trusted that there was something shared between the two of us, something in our gaze or the way that we look at things,” he continued. “I think in seeing the end result, something really wonderful happened, where it worked. There’s a spirit that’s shared between the two of them that wasn’t spoken about, and that to me is the magic of Justin Kurzel to know and trust that that would work.”
Within the first 13-minutes of the first episode, Elordi is in one of the more raw and vulnerable sex scenes of his career, showcasing Kurzel’s consistent interest in masculinity and male sensuality, something in line with his approach to “True History of the Kelly Gang.” “I guess if I’m looking at the script, what I’m looking for is would a human being do this? Is this true? I think for me, the script as a whole, all the scenes are just so necessary,” Elordi said of how he approaches sex scenes, particularly in this series.
“I think the carnal love is such an important part of being in love,” he added. “We spoke in depth about the different kinds of ways that they make love to each other and what does that mean and the different ways that he makes love to Ella, to the way that he makes it with Amy, and, and sort of what that carnality is saying that they’re not saying to each other when they speak. That’s what was so wonderful and powerful about those scenes.”
The chemistry between Elordi and his female characters is intoxicatingly palpable, and even more impressive when you learn that there was no chemistry reads or tests. “I was lucky enough where I’ve known Olivia [DeJonge] for nearly seven years now. I actually met Odessa [Young] when I was going into audition for ‘Euphoria.’ She was outside the audition room there in Santa Monica, so I met her then, and then reconnected on this set.” (As for if Young auditioned for “Euphoria,” Elordi clarified, “I don’t know, this was like a communal casting. They were casting all sorts of things out of this building, so I wouldn’t have known what she was there for.”)
Of both DeJonge and Young, the current Emmy contender said, “With both of them, they’re real actors and they really care about the craft. When you work with people like that and your views align and your goals for the story align and this attempt to tell the truth, I find that it becomes quite easy to connect and it’s quite a wonderful experience to connect with another actor in that way.”
Born and raised in Australia, this marks Elordi’s first big project from his home turf. “There was an enormous difference for me shooting a project at home,” he said of the experience. “This particular job was such an intimate crew of artists and a really, really wonderful team of creatives that were all set out on the same goal.”
“It was a particularly special experience. Just being home and having a 70-year-old cameraman walk past you and say, ‘G’day!’ — it is the most comforting feeling in the world to wake up every day and go to set, to hear the kookaburra when when it’s time to wrap, to smell a fresh cut footy ground on the way to work, all these things just went into the show and into the performance for me. It was a deeply important experience,” said Elordi.
Upon the release of the show, an Australian Vogue cover tied to its release was unearthed, photographed by the actor’s close collaborator and sister, Isabella Elordi. “What usually happens with these things when people are taking pictures of you, when you’re in a process, it ends up feeling contrived or forced, or you feel like they’re sort of like paparazzi looking in at you and catching you. But the beauty is, I’ve known my sister since my eyes opened. She’s my bigger sister, so she has a way of moving around me and witnessing me that even I don’t notice that she’s doing. It’s incredibly personal,” he said. “Those photos that she takes are full of so much love, and we can go through all the photos and we know exactly where we were, what was playing on the radio, the smell in the room, we know what happened the day before — it’s this incredibly, incredibly connective experience for us to work together and I’m so grateful for it.”
As for what’s next, Elordi is currently in production on Ridley Scott’s “The Dog Stars.” What he can tease of working with Scott: “This man has spent his life making cinema and the enthusiasm with which he comes to set every morning is like enough to keep me going for the next 400 years.”
He also just wrapped Emerald Fennell’s “Wuthering Heights.” Elordi recently told IndieWire that he “was really lucky. I was going to take a break for a while, and then Emerald just very simply texted me, and you can’t run from that text.” Teasing his co-star Margot Robbie’s performance in the project, he said “she’s incredible in the film, she’s a livewire. I’m so, so excited for people to see it. She’s a beautiful actor and she gave so, so much.”
“The Narrow Road to the Deep North” is now streaming on Prime Video.
