Heath Ledger’s Joker Sparked Jacob Elordi’s Leap Into Acting
Jacob Elordi says Heath Ledger’s Joker sparked his leap into acting, telling Gwyneth Paltrow that a first glimpse of Hollywood turned a curious Aussie kid into a rising star.
Jacob Elordi just told the kind of origin story that actually tracks: loud kid, shoved into a school musical, gets obsessed after seeing Heath Ledger as the Joker. Simple, specific, makes sense.
Where this came up
On a recent episode of Variety's Actors on Actors, Elordi sat down one-on-one with Gwyneth Paltrow. The two swapped questions about how they got into acting and what made a Hollywood career feel real in the first place. When Paltrow asked who gave him the idea that this could actually be his life, Elordi went back to the beginning.
The early spark: a teacher, a musical, and a very tall hat
Elordi says he was that kid in school: loud, nonstop energy, not exactly easy to place. A teacher, Mrs. McMahon, decided to funnel all that chaos into a play and cast him as the Cat in the Hat in Seussical the Musical. He was singing, dancing, wearing the big hat, and realized on the spot that performing was it for him. Paltrow jumped in with a quick "You nailed it," which he took in stride. Not subtle, but relatable.
Heath Ledger made Hollywood feel possible
Then comes the part that flips the switch. Elordi says he already knew Heath Ledger from movies he grew up on like A Knight's Tale, but seeing Ledger in The Dark Knight and then realizing, around age 12, that Ledger was Australian too changed the equation. Suddenly, Hollywood wasn't some abstract American thing. It felt viable. From there, he went all in.
"I saw Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight."
"When I was about 12, I realized he was from Australia."
If you know Elordi mostly from Euphoria, that trajectory lines up: kid who could not sit still, a teacher who knew what to do with him, and a local hero who made the dream feel real. After that, he says, it was an obsession. And honestly, you can see it.