Jacob Elordi is on the verge of being one of Hollywood’s leading men.

After catapulting into the public eye with Netflix’s Kissing Booth, he found mainstream fame with the HBO series Euphoria and has since gone on to sign for multiple high-profile movies including Amazon MGMs Saltburn.

The Emerald Fennell-directed psychological thriller follows a slightly strange student, Oliver (Barry Keoghan) who spends the summer with his classmate, Felix (Elordi) for a life-changing few months. While it only landed in cinemas a month ago, it has already caught the attention of the Golden Globes, with actors Keoghan and Rosamund Pike both up for nominations, and today finds itself on Amazon Prime Video.

It has also become a sensation with fans, with one particular scene earning plenty of chatter on social media. The infamous bath scene, which shows Oliver (Keoghan) hopping in the bath after Felix’s (Elordi) hands-on escapades with himself in said bath.

Taking to TikTok, fans have shared their shock at the boldness of it, one writing, “The way I gagged”, another added, “Wait a damn minute, maybe I should have minded my business”, while a third said, “This is insane”.

Alison Oliver (Venetia), Jacob Elordi (Felix) and Barry Keoghan (Oliver) in Saltburn. Photo / Chiabella James, Prime Video

Now, Elordi - who plays aristocratic Oxford heartthrob Felix Catton in the film - has revealed during a media round table responding to Wenlei Ma, his own reaction to the shock moment.

Confessing he hasn’t heard too many opinions about the scene because he tries to “hide away from it”, the actor said he’s been to a screening in Brisbane when the film first came out and said the reactions were “unbelievable”.

“Everybody was engaged and sort of gasping at the screen and yelling at the screen and everything like that. I haven’t been in a movie like that in a really, really long time,” he said.

As for how he felt when he first read the script and found out what the explicit scene would entail, he said it left him feeling “excited”.

“I was just really excited when I read that scene because you don’t really see things like that in sort of mainstream movies,” he admitted adding, “it’s just great that everyone was allowed to kind of push those boundaries and expose people like that [Oliver].”

Jacob Elordi as Felix Catton in Saltburn. Photo / Amazon Prime Video, MGM Studios

Elordi’s character Felix, is a far cry from his last big role playing the abusive star quarterback Nate Jacobs in Sam Levinson’s hugely successful show, Euphoria, but he’s not mad about it. Where Nate is dark and stiff, Felix is eccentric and warm, something Elordi describes as a “wonderful” change and also very similar to his own personality.

“It was quite wonderful because in my life so far I’ve played pretty stiff characters,” he said adding, “I’m not very stiff myself, I’m quite, loose and floppy, so, it was nice to be able to play that part of myself, which comes a little easier than standing rigid in a high school hallway,” he said referring to his Euphoria character.

The similarities between himself and Felix perhaps explain why he spent very little time trying to immerse himself in the character before filming.

Admitting he watched “movies” and listened to “a lot of music”, as well as a four-week stint in the movie’s filming location Chelsea before production began, it was actually a very simple wardrobe item that helped him become Felix.

“I had bought this old watch from 1952 I think before we started. But I sort of wore it the whole time I had this whole idea that it had been from his grandfather or something like that, and then with that was these bracelets from his last trip to Indonesia or something. So every time I put them on that was kind of the last piece of the puzzle before I went in there and did the thing.”

Elordi also confessed that while proud of the film, he believes it is “healthier” for him to leave the movie in the past.

“I’m very glad that we can share it with people and that people can then take from it what they will and build their own world from it, but for me, I think it’s healthier to sort of leave the movie and not go back living it.”

Elordi is yet to receive any global critical acclaim for the film this award season; however, 2024 is shaping up to be a huge year for the star with Sofia Coppola’s film Priscilla - in which he plays Elvis Presley - set to hit cinemas on February 1.

Saltburn is available to stream now on Prime Video.

Lillie Rohan is an Auckland-based reporter covering lifestyle and entertainment stories who joined the Herald in 2020. She specialises in all things relationships and dating, great Taylor Swift ticket wars and TV shows you simply cannot miss out on.