- I'm Jacob Elordi and I'm in studio with
The Hollywood Reporter. (upbeat music) - Now Zendaya has said that when she first read this script she signed on because of how
fast she read the script. Was that a similar experience for you? - Yeah, totally. I usually, you read a lot of scripts and you read like 20 pages of them and you just want to
throw them at the wall and never look at them again but this was like-- - Have you gotten a lot of
those where you just toss 'em? - Yeah. Well I couldn't be so arrogant. Before this show, I kind of had to take
whatever sort of came my way 'cause I was just starting out but just even when I read this, even though I was in
that kind of position, you just knew from the moment you read it, it reads like the show plays. It's so fast paced and it's so in depth and nothing in it was a cliche. You just knew the moment that you read it that it was like a really
fine piece of work. - For you, what were
some of the wow moments specifically that jumped out of the page? - The kitchen scene for me was the scene that I auditioned with and-- - [Brian] The knife? - The knife scene, yeah. And it's one of those scenes where I saw it in my head when I was reading it and it's kind of like an actor's dream, well for me anyway, to be able to like do
something of that level. I never had something
come across in a script, nor have I done anything in my work that would demand that kind
of intensity and stuff. So that was for me, it was like one of the biggest scenes that stood out to me. It's like imprinted from the first read. - It's really intense. I guess that's the best
way to describe it. - I think so, yeah. - As is the whole series, it's intense. - Yeah, your chest is kind of like. - It's gut wrenching a bit, too. - Totally, 100%. Making it was as well. The experience of making it, I think is sort of on
par with watching it. - Going off that, how did this series challenge
you most as an actor? It seems really draining
in terms of emotional. - Yeah, we, all of us kind of
I guess went to hell and back in the best way possible. We shot for almost a year and it was almost every day and playing Nate every
single day and being, 'cause I'm kind of the complete
opposite to him as a person as I hope most people are. - Yeah I hope you are. I'm kicking you out of here. - But it was so demanding. I don't think I've ever been so tired, nor confused, just because you'd go to work and you'd work all day and then you'd go home, sleep and then you'd wake up back at the studio and it felt like you were in this trance the whole time. But it was physically demanding, it was mentally taxing but it was so much fun. - It was fun? - You felt like you were
exhausting like every bit of everything that you had. It kind of felt like you were
putting it into the role, well I felt like I was putting
it into the role every day. I hope it looks like that. - It's euphoric, it's euphoria. - Literally, yeah. - And kind of getting into
the psychology of Nate, how did you first see him? - It's funny, in the first episode, you get this kind of somewhat stereotypical kind of, it sets the field for who he is and it's this, you see this aggressive jock who's got all this pent up anger and is just incredibly
arrogant and full of himself but I kind of had a
feeling from the get go that like it wasn't gonna, because nothing else in
the show is that simple. And so I started a journal from basically when I got the role. So I have this whole
journal that's full of it's kind of like his perspective.
- Oh really? - Yeah and there's photos
of the whole cast in it. But it's like what he thinks
of them and stuff like that. So it was like, it was this whole kind of, it was a journey figuring out who he was and it changed so much as the show went on 'cause we would get scripts sort of weekly with revisions and stuff like that. And the character kind of changed as I changed. We kind of made it up
as we went sort of thing so it was really interesting. - Did you sympathize with him at all or did you find it really difficult to? - 100,000%. Not even in that way
of like where people's, actors always say that you have to empathize
with your character, even if they're the bad guy or whatever. But I just, I never was able to
see him as the bad guy, whether it's 'cause I approached the story from his perspective always. But I would do a scene where I'd be physically hurting someone and then the crew, people would be like-- - Yeah that's right, he
hurts a lot of people. - Right yeah. They'd be like oh you're such an asshole, you're such a macho dick. And it didn't really register for me because I really couldn't see it because the way that I
tried to play every scene was as if what he was doing was like, it was like his truest intention, like he wanted to save his family or he wanted to save Maddy and he wanted to love her. He was just trying to fix problems in the only way that he knew how, like kind of with every
fiber of his being. And unfortunately, that makes him, in society, you can't
behave or act like that. But in terms of him as
like a frightened boy, he was kind of acting
incredibly instinctually and I can't find fault
in him nor blame him. - Get into his relationship with Maddy. You see him go on his violent rage when beating up the guy she
slept with at the party. And it was very American Psycho. He takes a shower after. - I'm so glad you said that. - Did you see it that way? How did you see it? - We spoke about that. Sam and I spoke about it being somewhat reminiscent of that. And that was sort of when the
character changed a lot too and I don't want to say sociopath but like I noticed, I sat back and I was like, I realized that there was an emptiness to him after that scene, like a very, like you know when Patrick
Bateman puts on his-- - The little face. - Yeah he does his thing in the morning. I kind of sort of watched that scene and I started thinking
about that kind of thing. 'Cause he intellectualizes everything. Nate kind of like thinks about everything and then very rarely shows it unless he's super angry. So I kind of went into this
kind of sociopath sort of state and did that kind of thing. - What was that face again? - Just watch the show because sometimes even I think he doesn't really look like, sometimes I don't think I look like, I watch the show and
I'm like, I don't know. - 'Cause a lot of it is kind
of an internal struggle, like you want to know what's
going through his head. - Totally. That's what happened. He was quite loud at the start and then as we kept going there's so many moments where he's just really quiet, like I would just sit in a room or be in a room just watching everyone, which was really fun, really, really interesting. - What were the conversations like about getting this story right and kind of the sensitivity
around the subject matter? - I didn't give it a lot of thought because I didn't want to approach it from like a socially
conscious point of view, 'cause then I might judge it. So I kind of, I think a lot of us, we kind of came into it like we're playing teenagers that exist in this world and are products of the world. So to kind of have those outsider opinions on like a social construct, for me anyway, it would've thrown me. So I kind of just believed
everything as it was and sort of behaved how he would behave. Obviously, with the show
coming out and everything, there's so many social things that people are gonna take from it but I can't say that I, I just sort of left the
social politics in the side and just wanted to act. - In episode two, it's the reveal that Nate
was the one texting Jules. What was your reaction to
kind of figuring that out? I saw the rest of the episodes so I know kind of how it turns out but what was your take on it? - It took weeks of sort of book work and Sam and I worked quite, we were quite ambiguous
with it the whole time. Sometimes we didn't even know why he was doing it, whether it's to manipulate her or whether it's because he
actually has feelings for her and I think that was the best place to come at it from. - Walk that line of both kind of. - Yeah because I don't
think he knows either because there's a moment where you see him with her and you're not sure, I wasn't even when I was doing it, whether I was being truthful with her or whether I was manipulating her. I didn't know. And we kind of toe that line
a lot of the way through and it kind of helps not
having a clear stance on what he thought about her. - And that happens in episode four, this airs before that, without giving too much away, but that episode was really well done in terms of the affair and kind of this chaos and this tends to be the movement. How was filming that? - It was incredible. The thing at the start is essentially a one shot with a carnival. So cool. And shooting it was so cool. We had these cameras on cranes and they'd go through stitch points and then carry the girls
up the ferris wheel and then drop back down to me and it's all practical, there's no green screens. - It brings you in there. You feel like you're
there kind of in a sense. - Yeah, we built a carnival in Pomona. They built an entire carnival
in the middle of nowhere. So this fully functioning carnival with tracks all through it and the tracks would like, the cameras would just
pop out from behind a ride and then swing behind us and you'd have to get from
this side of the carnival to that side of the carnival and then continue your dialogue. It was mental. And there was hundreds and hundreds, I think 400 extras or something like that. - It's like a psychological
roller coaster, I feel like that's the best way to-- - We were literally there. - Were you guys able to
enjoy any of the rides? - We did. When we got to work, we got to go on the rides and stuff but I'm quite awful at rides, I get sick. - You get sick on rides? - Yeah, it's terrible. - Just like motion sickness or? - I get sick like spinning in circles. - I think most people do, I don't know. Going off that though, with the subject matter
being so kind of dark, what are some of your
other favorite memories from filming with the cast? - We were like a tight knit family. We spent so many hours on set. I think my favorite, so Hunter and I were really close and we would just lay outside
of the trailers and sun bake and eat food and talk for hours and then we'd go inside
and give each other hell and then we'd come back out and just, we'd just like hold each other and lay. It was home. Being at Sony was like our home. - Now Nate and Rue have
kind of this backstory, they touch up on it in episode one but you don't really have
that many scenes together. Will we see more scenes
with you and Zendaya? - Yeah. It boils to, it's kind of this protagonist,
antagonist kind of thing. There's this slow burning
tension, I suppose, between the two of them, her as Jules' protector and then him as whatever he is to Jules. I like the way that that
triangle kind of works 'cause there's so much going on.
- It's an important part of the show. It's the whole show, yeah. What were you like as
a high school student? I hope your life wasn't like this, right? - I was exactly like Nate. No. I was like a theater kid. I read a lot of plays and
watched a lot of movies. I played sport as well, which is kind of a way that I understand sort of like the masculinity
of a football player and stuff like that. I kind of knew those circles of people but it was nothing like that. My dad's really normal. He loves my mom.
- Good, good, good. We're good to go. Would you want to see a second
season with these characters? You think there would be? - I could live with these people for the rest of my life. - That's scary to know. - No, it's demanding. It would be nice to see
an enormous change in him. It's so exciting 'cause the way that the show ends, the second season would
just be out of this world. Everything changes and gets
flipped on its head and I would love to, yeah, personally. - Obviously fans are excited for the kiss scene with (mumbles). Briefly, what can they expect? - Nothing is the same. There's a bunch of new people
that come into the fray and drama ensues. - That's a great tease. Drake is attached to Euphoria
as executive producer. Did you get to meet him? Were you a big Drake fan?
- I did. I did. And I am a Drake fan. I did, I met him on set once and he was so lovely. He was so kind and then he left with a fleet
of armored cars out of Sony. It was a weird sensation. I'd just done a huge scene and then I walked out and Drake was there and I was exhausted. I was like it's Drake, oh
hey Drake, what's up, Drake? And then he left as if he was never there. - Did he have a note about
the show, about Nate, or did he say anything? 'Cause he came from a high school show.
- He didn't know I was Australian, that's what I remember and then I spoke to him and he was like, what, you're Australian? Which I felt pretty cool about. - [Brian] That means your accent was good? - I hope so. - Heath Ledger is obviously your idol. - Yeah, absolutely. - Is he someone who made you want to kind of break into acting? What are some of your
favorite roles of his? - When I decided that
I wanted to be an actor was when I watched The Dark Knight. But I had this moment like a year ago where I realized all of these films, we used to go to the
Blockbuster on Fridays, we'd get movies out and I just, it just clicked
for me like a year ago that every Friday, I would either get out Brothers
Grimm or A Knight's Tale. So he's kind of been without me knowing in my sort of space for the longest time. But I think my favorite
role of his is in Candy and that's the kind of work that makes me want to be an actor, like to do something
like that would just be. And his ethos as well, just the way that he looked at Hollywood and the way that he kind
of looked at the world. It's like, at first I thought I was a fan and then now the more I
sort of read about him and see about him, I'm like, it's like parallels and I
feel very similar to him a lot of the time. - What are you looking forward to most about Joaquin Phoenix's
kind of take on the joker? - That's gonna be cool. I love Joaquin. I think he's one of those people that's in my top five people that like, he's like a dangerous actor and you never, I don't even care that it's the joker, I don't care that it's a superhero film or that they've made a bunch of them. I think any time that he's on screen, I will give my undivided attention. I would sit down for a week
and not leave my television if he was just doing stuff on it. - Just watching him do improv basically. - Yeah 'cause he just
does things that like-- - Watch him get motion
sickness on a roller coaster? - Right, but his delivery
and stuff is just like, it's inhuman, I don't even know how he
comes up with the way that he, I don't even know. - You have a few other projects coming up, Two Hearts and The Very
Excellent Mr. Dundee. - Yeah. - What are you looking forward to most about having these projects
be released to the world? - Two Hearts has an incredible message and it's a true story. So I'm excited for people
to kind of be aware of the subject matter and of Chris Gregory, the boy whose life it's about. And The Very Excellent Mr. Dundee is incredibly exciting for me. I got like a phone call and it was actually, it was because of Two Hearts, because the director of Two Hearts is friends with Paul Hogan and he had said, you should
put this kid in your movie and then Paul was like okay. And I mean that's Dundee, he's an Australian icon
and he's a living legend and on top of that he's
a really good bloke. So that's just hilarious and I can't wait to see
myself on screen with Dundee with Paul Hogan. It's crazy for me. As an Aussie, it's like what? - That's a dream role. You made it. - Yeah, I'm really excited. I'm really excited.
- Are you gonna come back and talk about all things coming up? - Yep. - Thanks so much for being here. - Thank you very much. - Don't miss Euphoria, Sunday nights on HBO. - Thank you.
