Some call him a St Kevin's boy, others a babygirl. Why is the internet obsessed with Jacob Elordi? (2024)

If you've been on TikTok in the last few months then there's a high chance you would have seen one particular fan edit of Jacob Elordi.

The original TikTok has more than nine million likes and 75 million views, prompting fans to christen Flume's hit 2016 track Never Be Like You the "Jacob Elordi edit song".

And it was all because of Saltburn. In Emerald Fennell's film Elordi plays Felix — a man so hot, rich and charming that his admirer literally drinks his dirty bathwater to feel closer to him. (This is really what happens, sorry to those who haven't seen Saltburn… and also sorry to those who have.)

The internet collectively lost their mind over this and now there's no way to get around it — Jacob Elordi is the new white boy of the month.

The Aussie-reared actor has been slogging away in Hollywood for the better half of a decade but Saltburn has launched Elordi into another level of fame completely.

But is he the next Heath Ledger, or is he just tall?

There is only one way to very undemocratically decide.

Welcome to Internet Obsessions, where the ABC Entertainment reporters — here, Velvet Winter and Jared Richards — unpack viral sensations and trends with a chat.

Who is Jacob Elordi?

Before becoming the internet's boyfriend and babygirl (more on that later), Jacob Elordi got his big break at 19 leading Netflix rom-com The Kissing Booth.

Born in Brisbane, he moved to Melbourne for school in his teens. He moved over to Los Angeles shortly after wrapping TKB, then landing the role of troubled teen Nate Jacobs in gritty HBO teen drama Euphoria.

Standing at 1.96 metres tall and with an old-school Hollywood handsomeness, Jacob was a breakout star, billed as a Gen Z heartthrob. He's since pivoted to more prestigious film roles, working with esteemed directors Sofia Coppola and Fennell, and has films upcoming with top-tier names Paul Schrader and Guillermo del Toro.

With a BAFTA Rising Star nomination and having hosted the first Saturday Night Live of 2024, Jacob is collecting industry co-signs that suggest he's more than just the internet's latest obsession.

Why are people obsessed?

Jared: Well, not everyone's sold just yet: I think it's safe to say that I'm maybe a little more convinced of Jacob's staying power than you, Velvet.

And it's not that he's just really tall and conventionally attractive. I do think there's more to him than that (and I'm ready to argue it!), but the Saturday Night Live writers seem to disagree. Almost every single punchline in the sketches of the episode he recently hosted was "he's hot!".

Do you think most people just see him as a pretty face? And, while you're at it, can you explain what babygirl means and why the internet's calling him one?

Velvet: Look, like most internet slang, babygirl has transformed in meaning over the years. First an affectionate (if not infantilising) term for one's girlfriend, babygirl is now the description de jour for a hot Hollywood man that has any kind of soft features or mannerisms and a large female fanbase.

One of Jacob's SNL promos was based around the idea of how babygirl he is, and of course he was utterly bewildered at being crowned babygirl (further proving his babygirlness). It signifies a level of comfort that he has with his fans and it's nice to see him playing along with it.

Of course, this level of comfort is a double-edged sword, as we found out earlier in the month when Jacob got into an altercation outside a Sydney pub with Kyle & Jackie O producer Joshua Fox.

Fox allegedly approached Elordi multiple times asking for a bit of his dirty bathwater (a nod to the infamous Saltburn scene) for Jackie O.

Violence is never the answer, but it is really illustrative of the distorted parasocial relationships some fans develop with celebrities. Yes, Jacob lives a life in the public eye but can you imagine going up to any other random man, asking for his bathwater and expecting a less extreme response?

Jared: I love that Australia had a completely different reaction to this story from the rest of the globe.

I think his reaction, while extreme, ties in with the comments he's made about struggling with being objectified: I know people might be reading this thinking "boo hoo, hot rich famous guy can't handle people being obsessed with him", but I can't imagine how numbing it'd be to be continually approached about the bathtub scene: It's pretty degrading, with the joke essentially being "I want your sem*n". How are you supposed to react to that?

He is pretty private, overall. He politely dodges questions about his dating life in interviews (his girlfriend is Olivia Jade of college bribing scandal fame, FYI), and goes pretty hard on establishing that he loves the art of cinema, always dropping some film bro reference.

It's very Robert Pattinson and James Franco. Both of them broke out of the heart-throb mould with (slightly pretentious) indie films and art projects to become Serious Actors. It's clearly what he's trying to do too.

Velvet: To me, he's coming across a little desperate in trying to make a safe landing from teen heart-throb to Serious Actor. I am a massive Kissing Booth fan because it's perfect, horny nonsense. But for years, Jacob has been trashing The Kissing Booth, the film that made his hot, tall face identifiable. In his GQ Man of the Year interview last year he straight out said he never wanted to be in them, that they were "ridiculous", "not universal" and "an escape".

Well excccccuuuuuse me, Mr Elordi, maybe some of us like escapist films. Maybe we don't want every cinema release to be dour and grounded!

Also, he pocketed the cash from the original and TWO sequels, so the work can't have been that bad. It just really boils my potatoes when heart-throbs think they've earned the right to blast the films that launched their star in the first place.

Jared: I don't know, I love when actors don't pretend that making a rom-com wasn't a career highlight — Jacob's comments remind me of Robert Pattinson's ongoing disdain for the Twilight films that made him a star. To me, it's refreshing, but I get why it's a little disrespectful to fans.

Personally, I reckon he's made the serious actor jump pretty well. Euphoria isn't my favourite show, but he's really terrifying in it, and I preferred his moody, insecure Elvis to Austin Butler's bombastic take.

And, putting aside how I feel about Saltburn, he's an absolute star in it. You're right though, they're all similar roles. He's a privileged boy relying on charm to stay afloat in pretty much everything we've seen from him so far — maybe it's more that you struggle with?

Velvet: It's less the 'pretty boy' and more the 'privilege' part of it. Cause I'm a Brisbanite (boo all you want, I can't hear you) and the one thing every Brisbane local knows is that Jacob Elordi went to Nudgee College — the old boyest of the old boy schools in the city (he also attended St Kevin's College, the Nudgee of Melbourne).

And, look, not to get presumptuous but… it shows. I don't think Jacob Elordi is a bad actor by any means (I haven't seen Priscilla but you haven't seen The Kissing Booth so we're even), but all the roles he's played so far have been as borderline set dressing.

He's always second fiddle to the more captivating co-star (Joey King, Barry Keoghan, the rest of the Euphoria cast), yet he's demanding to be seen as a 'serious actor'.

I don't doubt he's going to do some good things, he has a bright career ahead of him and this could be a little tall poppy syndrome coming through.

But answer me this, would you be as excited for a Jacob Elordi performance if he didn't look like that?

Jared: Hard to say! He'd simply be a different actor: His roles, so far, have played off his looks. But I assume he'll go ugly when he plays Frankenstein's Monster in Guillermo del Toro's take on Mary Shelley's novel, so we'll see then.

Besides, I think there's more to becoming the internet's boyfriend than being beautiful.

Take this interview he did about 'things he likes' (including dogs, Fred Again, and Les Murray poetry that he recites!) while wearing an oversized pink turtleneck. Sure, the cynic in me says the softboy personality is practised, but I do find his demeanour and earnestness endearing.

He's also beloved because of his style, which the likes of GQ and Vogue celebrate as a new type of gentle, suave masculinity.

Jacob's handbags, slouchy knits, tiny shorts and even his internet-breaking barefoot servo runspeak to me a lot more than, say, Harry Styles' or Pedro Pascal's boho looks. He's come a long way since his award-winning fedora at the 2012 Flemington Races:

Also, I like that a straight man is wearing more colourful clothing and not pretending it's a massive political statement.

Velvet: We could wax lyrical about Jacob's wardrobe all day but we must get to the question on everybody's lips, is Jacob Elordi too tall to be an actor?

Jared: Maybe he needs to step away from the prestige directors and try something truly challenging: Taking over Hugh Grant's controversial Oompa Loompa role for Wonka 2.