Euphoria star Jacob Elordi had a commendable response to being called gay at school for taking part in school plays.
The Australian actor plays Nate Jacobs in the hit HBO series.
He explained how he dealt with the comments in a new interview with GQ.
The 25-year-old said: “From the moment I did a play I was called gay at school.”
Elordi recognised his self-confidence was the key to ignoring the remarks.
“I had this abundance of confidence in myself because I could do both: I was quite good at sport and I think I was quite good at theatre.”
“I felt like I was above it, or it made me feel older. It made me feel wiser. I was never worried that my peers would think I was less than a man.”
When he received comments about his sexuality, he threw himself into roles even more.
“When they said I was gay, I remember leaning into the makeup,” he said.
Elordi recalled when he played King of the Fairies in Shakespeare’s A Midsummer Night’s Dream.
He wore purple glitter on his face and spiked his hair for the part.
“I was like, if I’m going to be the King of the Fairies, I’m going to be the fucking hottest King of the Fairies you’ve ever seen…I started welcoming those kinds of characters. I started welcoming the femininity. I started speaking with my hands. I started really playing the thespian.”
Elordi liked the power of challenging expectations.
“I stepped away from beer culture and from sport culture and I was like, well, if you think this is gay, I’m going to be who I am when I was your friend, which is this hetero guy, but I’m going to play the arts,” he explained.
“I’m going to do it, and I’m going to show you that’s bullshit. I could never understand – how could you label anything, ever? How could you label sport as masculine? How does your sexuality inform your prowess as an athlete, or your prowess as a performer?”
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