The Untold Truth Of Zendaya's Rumored Boyfriend Jacob Elordi

Zendaya's rumored boyfriend, Australian actor Jacob Elordi, instantly became Netflix's boyfriend thanks to his role in teen rom-com The Kissing Booth. Adding fuel to the fire, Elordi and onscreen girlfriend Joey King subsequently enjoyed an IRL romance, leaving fans weak at the knees over how their irresistible chemistry had spilled over. It seems Elordi is making a habit of dating his castmates as a rumored dalliance with Euphoria co-star Zendaya soon had fans salivating once again. 

The proud Aussie is the man of the moment, but it's easy to forget he hasn't actually been in the spotlight that long. The Kissing Booth was his breakout role, but, before that, there were a couple of shorts and... not much else. In stark contrast with other male stars in his bracket, the Brisbane native isn't even hugely active on social media. Thus, Elordi remains something of a question mark, meaning there are plenty of juicy things to discover when delving deep into his life.

Although The Kissing Booth was a major hit with fans and catapulted Zendaya's rumored boyfriend Jacob Elordi from barely-known actor to no. 1 crush, booking that one movie didn't exactly solve all his problems. He regaled GQ Australia with how broke was immediately after. The actor was actually about to leave Los Angeles for good and head back home to Australia because he was couch surfing/living in his car and his visa was about to expire when his next big role in Euphoria came along. 

As he revealed to Collider, it happened at exactly the right moment. He admitted, "I was essentially homeless when I auditioned for it." Likewise, he's aware his upwards trajectory since then has been quite bizarre since it all happened so quickly. Still, Elordi reckons that desperation, which was reportedly keenly felt by the rest of the cast, too, helped them connect more deeply with their characters. "We were all in these places that were just this very classic Hollywood existence, so maybe it read on our faces that we were dying for it," he suggested. Thankfully, it all worked out and the rest is history. 

Euphoria is known for pushing the envelope when it comes to showing the often too real lives of American teenagers. From drug use to rampant sex, there's nothing the writers shy away from. However, when it comes to sharing scenes with naked extras, Jacob Elordi isn't bothered. Zendaya's rumored boyfriend told The Hollywood Reporter of one particular locker room-based sequence, saying, "For me, it was interesting because that scene was actually very real, and the look on my face and the way that I was feeling was very real. The energy in the room of that many big men jumping and yelling and slapping you ... it was so intense."

The Aussie found the sequence quite fun to shoot, admitting he found it pretty amusing, all things considered. Elordi takes issue with critics calling for the censorship of certain images, too, arguing, "I don't care about that kind of stuff, and it's funny reading all of the reviews now..." If nothing else, it was a memorable moment for him as an actor that won't be topped any time soon.

The Kissing Booth increased Jacob Elordi's social media following to a few million practically overnight, which caught the actor totally off guard. As Zendaya's rumored boyfriend explained to Wonderland, although Elordi was grateful for the attention brought by the role, he wasn't prepared for the intensity of it. Rather than worrying about clinging to that new identity to push his profile further, however, Elordi deliberately sought out work like Euphoria. 

"I was kind of hoping that some people would start to dislike me — I was so excited to shed the skin of what everyone thought about me," he told GQ Australia frankly. The Aussie native is quick to point out he's grateful for any jobs that come his way, and he didn't necessarily see Euphoria as purely a corrective to his fluffy rom-com past, either. "I wanted to make things like Euphoria before I even came to Hollywood... There was no change in my brain where I was like, 'OK now I need to do serious work,'" he said simply.

The majority of Jacob Elordi fans will know him for The Kissing Booth and Euphoria, neither of which allowed the Brisbane star to utilize his native accent. But most people are not even aware he's an Aussie because Elordi's American intonation is so convincing. And yet, Elordi was terrified he wouldn't be able to do it, going so far as telling Entertainment Weekly that getting it right even in his toughest scenes was his biggest achievement from Euphoria's first season. 

"Before I started the show ... one of my qualms was like, 'Oh, man, I don't know if I'm going to be able to do an American accent.' I knew I could do one but my fear was that I would just forget and be stupid," Zendaya's rumored boyfriend revealed. However, Elordi's mother told their local paper, The Courier Mail, her son has been practicing for over a decade. She proudly confirmed Elordi's American accent has been perfect since he was a kid, advising, "He was in grade four, and for show and tell he rapped an Eminem song. He just loved that American accent." 

It shouldn't surprise anybody to learn the acting talent Zendaya's rumored boyfriend Jacob Elordi has was clear when he was still a youngster. As his mother told The Courier Mail, Elordi was just 12 when she knew he had a real gift. "His school did a production of Seussical and Jacob was The Cat in the Hat. He was so confident and so funny, and even then he had such a strong self-belief," she recalled.

That indestructible self confidence was present when Elordi's parents met with his L.A. manager in Sydney, just a few years before his big move across the world. Although the manager advised him to win a Logie (an Australian TV award) to up his profile before trying his hand in Hollywood, as Elordi's father recounted, his ambitious son was more interested in bagging an Oscar. "He told me once that he wanted to win one and I said something like, 'You know that's a one-in-a-million chance?' Jacob looked me dead in the eye and said, 'Someone has to be that one,'" he recalled.  

Plenty of young actors, particularly hot up-and-comers, are too afraid of wrecking their beautiful faces to get involved in any major stunts on set. But not Jacob Elordi, who proudly told Just Jared Jr., "On the set of The Kissing Booth, I learned how to ride a motorbike and have been obsessed since." Elordi even followed up with a personal message, advising, "Mum, if you're reading this... I'm buying a motorbike." Hopefully Zendaya's rumored boyfriend can be just as impressive on the streets as he was onscreen. 

Elordi is reportedly a model stunt partner, too, as evidenced during the infamous choking scene in Euphoria, which his co-star Alexa Demie described to The Hollywood Reporter as incredibly difficult to film. The actress acknowledged she's grateful her hardest sequences in the hit show have been with Elordi as, "He's a really sweet person and really professional and easy to work with, so that made it better."  

Unfortunately, another major stunt in Euphoria didn't end too well for the consummate professional. As Jacob Elordi told Entertainment Weekly, the fight/breakdown scene with onscreen father and former Grey's Anatomy star Eric Dane was "physically grueling" for both actors. As the Aussie explained, he and Dane are close enough that they trusted each other to give the scene everything they had. And, because they really did go for it, Zendaya's rumored boyfriend ended up getting pretty banged up from the shoot. Of his injuries, he acknowledged some gashes were later visible on a magazine cover.

"I was bleeding. I got a concussion. I ended up throwing up after work. It was gnarly. It was really, really gnarly," he recalled. Thankfully, the scene was at the end of his shooting period, so Elordi could take time to recover afterwards. He doesn't regret it either, noting, "It was definitely the most fulfilling thing that I've sort of ever shot."

Jacob Elordi's rumored relationship with Zendaya is mostly kept under wraps, so little is known about when (or really if) they made it official, under what circumstances, or even how they really feel about each other. The Euphoria stars reportedly hooked up after the first season wrapped, according to E! News. An insider tantalizingly shared that the two were hanging out constantly and were super close, revealing in February 2020, "They have been inseparable since last summer and have been making time for each other in between projects," the insider noted. Jacob has met Zendaya's family and everyone adores him. They have a lot of fun together and have a lot in common."

As the tabloid lens glare got hotter, the Aussie actor broke down and offered a little nugget of info in an interview with W magazine. Members of the press were warned not to ask Elordi anything about his relationship with Zendaya specifically, but Zendaya's rumored boyfriend did discuss what it was like working with Zendaya, gushing, "It's incredible, you know? She's the ultimate artist." 

Brisbane native or proud "Brissy," as the parlance goes, Jacob Elordi once laid awake in his bed as a 16-year-old college student and aspiring actor, unable to sleep because he was tortured by the idea he'd never make it to Hollywood or even appear in a movie. As a piece in The Courier Mail detailed, acting was always his plan A and Elordi refused to even consider a plan B. Naturally, he eventually made it, but there was a time Brisbane felt incredibly limiting to Elordi.

However, living so far away in Los Angeles has made the actor super homesick, offering the clarity to appreciate his hometown for how great it really is. "I'm so arrogant about Brisbane when I'm in LA," Zendaya's rumored boyfriend admitted, acknowledging, "I tell everyone I'm from Brissy and it's the best place on earth." Unfortunately, for a kid who couldn't wait to flee Australia for America, now that he's living across the world, Elordi realizes he'd rather be surrounded by loved ones back home.  

Aside from introducing him to rumored girlfriend Zendaya, Euphoria changed Jacob Elordi's life in another major way too. As he told Wonderland, it's a wonder he even got the role as he forgot his lines at the first casting call. Never mind the fact, at the time, "I had no name, I had no backing, you could not find any video of me acting anywhere." Luckily, he got the part regardless, and it's changed him for the better as an actor.

"Even when we were making it, what I thought he was when I auditioned to what we finished with character-wise, I never could have hoped or dreamed for anything as brilliant or as engaging. The character changed as we made the show," he gushed of the complex Nate. Likewise, for Elordi, he's noticed both physical and mental changes in himself through portraying Nate and spending so long inside his arguably twisted head that, he hopes, shine through in his performance. 

Although it gave Jacob Elordi a plethora of new fans, The Kissing Booth wasn't well-received by critics (it sits at just 17 percent on review aggregate Rotten Tomatoes) and certain commentators felt the relationship between King's character, Elle, and Elordi's Noah was borderline problematic. As it turns out, the man himself couldn't agree more. Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the Aussie actor acknowledged The Kissing Booth was his breakout role, for which he's eternally "grateful," but that doesn't change the dodgy characterization of Noah. 

However, Zendaya's rumored boyfriend sees Euphoria and the intricately contradictory character of Nate as "righting my wrongs a little bit" because, as far as Elordi is concerned, "The character in The Kissing Booth is awful and it's never really explained." The actor went on to clarify how the unexplained idolization of Noah is left unchecked, while Euphoria actually shows why, and how, that kind of blind hero worship happens to a certain type of young man.

For a man who looks, well, like that and who booked a Calvin Klein ad off the back off those looks, as breathlessly reported by GQ Australia, it seems like Jacob Elordi is pretty comfortable with his status as a bonafide heartthrob. But that's not so, as the Aussie actor told Wonderland in no uncertain terms, "For me personally, I abhor it... I abhor the idea of it..."

The Euphoria star acknowledged, "That's probably why everyone is always trying to go against the grain when these things happen to you, because I don't think anyone — unless you're a complete psychopath — walks around thinking that you're some kind of something..." He argued it's not conducive to a healthy career or life, as the so-called "heartthrob" status is incredibly limiting. As Elordi explained, it prevents people from taking him seriously as a performer because they're so preoccupied with his looks. 

Again, Zendaya's rumored boyfriend appreciates the attention, but Elordi isn't interested in being praised for anything besides his acting chops. 

Aside from refusing to allow his career be defined by how good he looks in a pair of underpants, Jacob Elordi is careful to choose roles that appeal to him in a variety of ways, rather than simply looking to extend his time in the spotlight or even to pay the bills (which might go some way towards explaining why he almost ended up on the street before booking Euphoria). The actor explained his outlook simply to Collider as, "I just wanna work on something that makes me wanna get out of bed in the morning."

Elaborating on how he chooses projects, Zendaya's rumored boyfriend explained, "I want to do work that I genuinely enjoy because the time that you spend acting, between action and cut, is a minute." Speaking from experience (though he didn't give away which particular project, or even projects, he was referring to), as the Aussie native sees it, spending up to 20 hours a day in a world you hate, doing work that doesn't appeal to you, is completely soul-destroying. 

Jacob Elordi may know exactly how to approach his work, but that doesn't mean he's got some grand plan for how his career is going to turn out. In a GQ Australia profile appropriately headlined, "Jacob Elordi is Only Just Getting Started," he shared, "I don't really feel like I'm building a career or trying to be this kind of actor or that kind of actor." As the Kissing Booth star explained, his main goal is to have a "fulfilling" career that hopefully speaks to audiences, too. 

Outside of that, Zendaya's rumored boyfriend isn't pushed on what everybody else thinks of him. However, Elordi admitted to still feeling as though he has something to prove. Thankfully, he's finally in a place in his life where he can take pride in the work he's put out there. After the one-two punch of The Kissing Booth and Euphoria made him into an instantaneous star, he admitted, "It's been a blur and it's definitely a version of living the dream. But it's starting to feel a little more normal now."