Taylor Zakhar Perez and Jacob Elordi.Photo:Phillip Faraone/Getty; Maria Moratti/Getty
Phillip Faraone/Getty; Maria Moratti/Getty
Taylor Zakhar Perezand hisThe Kissing Boothco-starJacob Elordihave varying opinions regarding the hit Netflix trilogy.
“I thought it was a shame because, to my knowledge, everybody else had such a wonderful experience,” he said of theEuphoriaactor, 26.
“It’s a shame that was his experience on the set," Perez continued. “Especially when those movies came out, it was a time when we really needed something like that.”
Taylor Zakhar Perez in ‘The Kissing Booth’.Marcos Cruz/NETFLIX
Marcos Cruz/NETFLIX
Perez continued, “I know from our fan interactions, getting stopped everywhere I go, whatKissing Boothmeans to people and what it brought them during such a dark time. I guess the silver lining is he still made people laugh and feel good.”
The first film in the rom-com franchise was released in 2018. Two sequels followed in 2020 and 2021 during the height of theCOVID-19 pandemic.
Jacob Elordi and Joey King.Marcos Cruz/NETFLIX
In the movies, Elordi starred asbad boy football star Noah Flynn— love interest to a quirky Elle Evans (Joey King). Perez joined the cast for the second film as Marco Peña, the new kid at school who started a crazy love triangle centered around Evans. Perez also returned for the third installment.
“Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape,” Elordi toldGQfor the 2023 Men of the Year Issue.
Jacob Elordi.Jack Bridgland/GQ
Jack Bridgland/GQ
He added that signing on to do three of the films almost felt like “a trap” because “it can become 15 for them, none for you. You have no original ideas and you’re dead inside. So it’s a fine dance.”
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“How is caring about your output pretentious?” he said, adding, “But not caring, and knowingly feeding people s—, knowing that you’re making money off of people’s time, which is literally the most valuable thing that they have. How is that the cool thing?”
Instead of continuing down the rom-com path with projects likeThe Kissing Booth, Elordi stated how he was “so happy” to work on films that pushed him creatively such asSofia Coppola’sPriscillaandEmerald Fennell’sSaltburn.
He’d also previously opened up toGQin August 2022about the Elvis Presley biopic. Elordi admitted he looked at the “Hound Dog” hitmaker in a new light after buying Peter Guralnick’s Presley biographyLast Train to Memphis.
“I was just like, damn, Elvis Presley wanted to beJames Dean. He wanted to beMarlon Brando. I’ve researched almost every actor from that time period, and I passed [Elvis] off as an entertainer and singer,” he said. “But then he was an actor. "
source: people.com
