Jacob Elordi is widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after leading men, yet the Australian actor has long been candid about the uneasy reality of living in the public eye.
The 29-year-old Brisbane native was at the centre of renewed attention this week after challenging photographers who followed him and girlfriend Kendall Jenner through Paris during Fashion Week.
Video appeared to show the Euphoria star becoming increasingly uncomfortable as paparazzi trailed the couple through the streets, repeatedly photographing them with bright flashes.
“Wait, wait, wait, can we just walk home?” Elordi asked the photographers.
“Stop, stop, stop.”
He reminded the group that they had already taken pictures before asking them to allow the couple some privacy.
Jacob Elordi is widely regarded as one of Hollywood’s most sought-after leading men, yet the Australian actor has long been candid about the uneasy reality of living in the public eye.
The 29-year-old Brisbane native was at the centre of renewed attention this week after challenging photographers who followed him and girlfriend Kendall Jenner through Paris during Fashion Week.
“Can we just walk back to our hotel? No flash, just let us walk. Just let us go,” he said.
Jenner, 30, attempted to protect her face from the camera flashes, while Elordi later slipped on sunglasses as the pair continued alongside their security team.
The Paris confrontation has renewed interest in Elordi’s often strained relationship with paparazzi, fans and the relentless demands of celebrity life.
It is also not the first time the Saltburn actor has been filmed making his boundaries around unwanted attention unmistakably clear.
Just months earlier, he was involved in another awkward encounter with a fan while visiting Japan with Jenner.
A video shared online showed fan Otavio Bittencourt approaching Elordi from behind and placing a hand on his back, seemingly in an effort to attract his attention and request a photo.
Elordi turned around immediately.
“Please don’t touch me, bro,” he told the fan before walking away.
Just months earlier, Elordi was involved in another awkward encounter with a fan while visiting Japan with Jenner.
The short exchange quickly spread across social media.
Although some viewers criticised Elordi for sounding abrupt, many others came to his defence, arguing that he had every right to object to being touched by someone he did not know.
However, one of the clearest examples of his frustration came several months earlier, when Elordi told a photographer firsthand how profoundly the constant scrutiny had affected his life.
In December 2025, the actor was walking through Paris’ Gare du Nord station when he was followed by a photographer.
The photographer called out: ‘Jacob, we love you.’
Elordi stopped, removed one of his headphones and replied: ‘You make it really hard for me to live.’
When the photographer again insisted he loved him, Elordi fired back: ‘I don’t love you.’
‘You make it really hard for me to live,’ he repeated.
Elordi stopped, removed one of his headphones and replied: ‘You make it really hard for me to live.’ When the photographer again insisted he loved him, Elordi fired back: ‘I don’t love you’
The blunt exchange offered a rare glimpse into just how strongly the Australian star feels about being pursued by photographers.
Around the same period, Elordi admitted his sudden rise to fame had left him feeling as though he was living inside The Truman Show.
Reflecting on the explosion of attention that followed his 2018 film The Kissing Booth, he said: ‘I woke up into a completely different world.’
He described the internet attention surrounding him as ‘so frightening’.
‘I would go out to my coffee shop, and all of a sudden I felt like I was in The Truman Show,’ he said.
His tense moments have not been limited to paparazzi.
Elordi also went viral during the 2025 Venice Film Festival following a sharp exchange with a member of staff while attending the premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein.
The actor had stopped to pose for photographs with waiting fans when an official appeared to try to move him along.
Elordi also went viral during the 2025 Venice Film Festival following a sharp exchange with a member of staff while attending the premiere of Guillermo del Toro’s Frankenstein
‘I’m going to take a picture right here,’ Elordi said as he continued posing.
He then turned back towards the staff member and bluntly warned: ‘Don’t ever tell me what to do.’
The video quickly circulated online because of the force of Elordi’s response.
However, the fan who posted the footage later defended him, saying the actor had been ‘so nice’ and was simply trying to take photographs with as many people as possible before being ushered away.
But none of those encounters compare with the extraordinary incident that unfolded outside a Sydney pub in February 2024.
The Kyle and Jackie O Show producer Joshua Fox approached Elordi outside the Clovelly Hotel in Sydney’s eastern suburbs as part of a radio stunt.
Fox brought along an empty container and jokingly asked whether the actor could fill it with his bathwater as a birthday present for Jackie ‘O’ Henderson.
The gag was inspired by Saltburn’s notorious bathtub scene, in which Barry Keoghan’s character drinks bathwater after Elordi’s character has used the tub.
Fox was recording the encounter on his phone and said Elordi asked him to stop filming and delete the footage.
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According to Fox’s account, the interaction then escalated.
‘I’m going to take a picture right here,’ Elordi said as he continued posing. He then turned back towards the staff member and bluntly warned: ‘Don’t ever tell me what to do’
Fox later alleged on air that Elordi moved towards him, pushed him against a wall and placed his hands around his throat.
Elordi did not publicly provide a detailed account responding to Fox’s allegations.
NSW Police confirmed at the time they were investigating an alleged assault outside a hotel in Sydney’s eastern suburbs involving a 32-year-old man and a 26-year-old man.
Police did not name Elordi in their statement and said the older man had not sustained any injuries.
The incident made international headlines and remains the most serious episode in Elordi’s history of tense encounters surrounding his fame.
Despite the dramatic nature of their encounter, Fox told Our News Outlet on Friday he no longer holds any ill feeling towards the actor.
‘As much as press and media is part of his job, it must become frustrating at times,’ he said.
‘I hold no bad blood, I hope he can find a happy medium where he can enjoy the life he’s built for himself and the fame that comes with that.’
NSW Police confirmed they were investigating an alleged assault outside a hotel in Sydney’s eastern suburbs involving a 32-year-old man and a 26-year-old man
Elordi was virtually unknown internationally before Netflix’s The Kissing Booth turned him into a global heart-throb in 2018.
The sudden fame was so overwhelming that he later admitted he considered walking away from acting.
Speaking to GQ in 2022, Elordi recalled waking up after the film’s success to millions of new followers on Instagram.
Suddenly, strangers around the world were combing through photographs and details from his private life.
‘I hated being a character to the public,’ he said.
‘I felt so far from myself.’
The actor also spoke about the first time paparazzi photographed him while he was out with another person.
‘It felt like, all of a sudden, I was a poster,’ he said.
‘Like I was a billboard.’
Elordi said the intense scrutiny made him feel as though he was ‘for sale’ and admitted it had changed how he viewed everyday life.
Elordi said the intense scrutiny made him feel as though he was ‘for sale’ and admitted it had changed how he viewed everyday life
‘It creates a very paranoid way of living,’ he said.
The experience became so disorienting that he reportedly turned to his Deep Water co-star Ben Affleck for advice on how to deal with the attention.
Affleck has famously spent decades being followed by paparazzi and having his private relationships documented in microscopic detail.
Elordi’s irritation has not subsided as his career grew.
By 2023, he had gone from Netflix heart-throb to one of Hollywood’s most in-demand young actors thanks to Euphoria, Priscilla and Saltburn.
But his feelings about the photographers documenting his every move remained much the same.
Discussing paparazzi photographs during another interview with GQ, Elordi made his feelings crystal clear.
‘F**k those guys,’ he said.
‘Really, f**k those guys.’
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His discomfort with being watched has also extended to his romantic relationships.
In 2020, Elordi admitted constant public interest could make maintaining a genuine relationship more difficult.
‘When people are watching and talking about it, it makes it a little bit difficult,’ he told Vanity Fair.
The comment has taken on fresh relevance now that Elordi is dating Jenner, one of the most photographed women on the planet.
The model grew up in front of cameras on Keeping Up With The Kardashians and has dealt with paparazzi attention since she was a teenager.
Elordi and Jenner have been spotted together around the world, with their romance generating even more interest in the famously private actor’s personal life.
And as his celebrity has grown, Elordi has continued speaking about the disconnect between the man he believes himself to be and the version of him consumed by the public.
While promoting The Narrow Road to the Deep North in 2025, he admitted fame could make him feel like an outsider in his own life.
‘You feel like an impostor,’ he said.
‘You’re met with this public idea of who you are, and it’s never going to reflect who you actually are.’
