Jacob Elordi reveals personal reason for joining ‘The Narrow Road to the Deep North': ‘It was something important to me'

Yahoo

2 days ago

Australian actor Jacob Elordi, known for his standout performances in Saltburn and Priscilla, takes on a harrowing new role as a World War II prisoner of war in The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Based on Richard Flanagan's Booker Prize-winning novel, the Prime Video miniseries is set in Elordi's hometown and marks another major milestone in the actor's fast-rising career. Immediately after wrapping, the actor stepped into another demanding role — as the creature in Guillermo del Toro's upcoming adaptation of Frankenstein. Below, Elordi opens up about diving into the emotional and physical landscape of The Narrow Road, his experience returning to work in Australia and the unexpected connection between playing a POW and his role in Frankenstein.
Gold Derby: What drew you to the role Lt. Col. Dorrigo Evans?
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Jacob Elordi: The director, Justin Kurzel, who was a filmmaker that I've been a fan of since I was probably 14 or 15 years old, sent me a letter asking if I wanted to take part in this miniseries for him. I would've been into whatever he sent me. I read the book immediately after the email and it was just one of those moments where you feel like you're being handed the role that you have wanted to play your whole life, with the filmmaker that I've wanted to work with my whole life. It was something that was important to me.
How did you mentally and physically prepare for the role of Dorrigo?
I flew to Melbourne to meet Justin and I was in a stage of when I sometimes get an email from a director like him and they're giving me a job, I think I'm going to lose it immediately. I get really, really worked up and nervous and I try to learn my lines to the movie before we even have a general meeting. I had a sack full of books that I'd read about medical surgeons and the Burma Railway and went to this meeting with him. He was just like, 'mate, we have a year and a half until we go.' But I just wanted him to not replace me without having met me.
But then I was lucky to have the year after meeting him and talking about it to sort of let the book marinate for a month and then let the screenplay marinate for a bit more. By the time I got to Justin, I had all this reading, all these ideas, and I had all these things written down and he was like, forget your books. You have to be true. Justin provided this set, which was a live theater experience. It was like you had no choice but to be real because from the moment you came out of hair and makeup in your costume, we were marched to the set and as a unit. And then when we got there, the guards were already there before us, always in costume and in character. And something was happening on every corner of the set.
What about the physicality of playing a prisoner of war?
We had a six-week prisoner bootcamp basically. We were watched over by nutritionists and trainers. There's something that happens when you are hungry. All the extra things that you have in your day-to-day life that you worry about, they all sort of start to strip away. All you can think about are the men that are in front of you and if they're going to be okay and where your next meal is coming from. Something happens in the weight loss process that brings on the immediacy of the camps. All those boys, 20 something young men put their lives on hold for months and shredded their weight for it. I'm incredibly proud of all of them.
What's the first thing you ate once shooting wrapped?
I had sushi train, which is this, it's a train of sushi in Australia, but they do fried chicken in sushi. We were all so sick, our stomachs swelled down. We were texting each other, everyone was texting, I should not have had Mexican or I can't believe I've done this.
What was it like for you personally to do an Australian production?
It was something I've wanted to do for a really long time. And then it also kind of made me mad at all my friends who were American actors because I realized they were just using their own voices the whole time. It was the dawning of, I was like, oh, you not doing an accent when we act. That's crazy. Just kind of immediacy of just your lines coming out of your mouth, not having to go through a toll road to get there. It was a relief.
What was it like to step out of this role and right into the role of the monster in Guillermo del Toro's ?
About halfway through filming the death camps, I got a phone call and I was on my way home and they were like, you need to read this by 11 p.m. and it's Guermillo del Toro's Frankenstein. I read it and then spoke to him and then found out that I was making Frankenstein maybe three or four weeks after I wrapped. I had this wonderful thing happen, which is probably saying too much, but there was this thing that happened in the process where I got to kill Dorigo in a way, who was the closest thing to a man, that I've gotten to play in my career in a lot of ways. And so I got to die as a man and then kind of be reborn in this creature, which is this character that is totally starting from scratch. So I have to rebuild myself physically and spiritually and mentally through playing the creature so strangely, they're actually connected. And it sounds a little bit like hippy dippy, but it really, going from the hunger into that, it really was this one process. So I got to kind of let it go that way.
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