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Jacob Elordi and director Justin Kurzel formed a creative bond long before their official collaboration on Amazon’s limited series The Narrow Road to the Deep North. Without realizing it, they had admired each other’s work from afar — Elordi captivated by Kurzel’s raw 2011 debut Snowtown, and Kurzel intrigued by Elordi’s breakout performances in Euphoria, Priscilla, and Saltburn.
Kurzel eventually reached out to Elordi with an unexpected offer: to play Dorrigo Evans, the central figure in an ambitious adaptation of Richard Flanagan’s Booker Prize-winning novel. The story follows Evans, a WWII Australian POW, whose memories of a forbidden love with his uncle’s wife sustain him through the horrors of a Japanese labor camp. Elordi was stunned — he had long considered reaching out to Kurzel himself, simply to say how much he admired his work.
Their first meeting confirmed the mutual respect. “He’s a cinephile,” Kurzel said of Elordi. “Jacob is the real deal; he’s incredibly curious about the craft of acting.” Elordi echoed the sentiment, saying the project proved why “you should meet your heroes.”
Released on Amazon Prime in April, The Narrow Road to the Deep North has drawn critical praise, particularly for Elordi’s intense performance. Kurzel, who is close friends with Flanagan, acknowledged the risks of adapting a beloved novel. But Flanagan encouraged him to make it his own: “Don’t be precious about it. Make sure it’s something distinct for you.”
For Elordi, the project was deeply personal. Not only did it mark the first time he could perform in his native accent, but it also allowed him to spotlight Australia’s war history. “It’s really important to me that our cinema plays internationally,” he said. “I’m just really proud to be able to act in something from home that is, to me, of great substance.”
Filming began with the love story between Dorrigo and Amy (Odessa Young), giving the actors time to develop chemistry. Then came the brutal POW scenes, for which Elordi lost 20 pounds over six weeks — during Christmas, no less. He likened his preparation to “altitude training,” gradually shedding parts of his daily life to fully inhabit the role.
Despite the hardship, Elordi trusted Kurzel’s vision. “It’s not hard if you really love what you do,” he said. And with a leader like Kurzel, Elordi was all in.
