Both Taylor Zakhar Perez and his co-star on The Kissing Booth, Jacob Elordi, have different perspectives on the critically acclaimed trilogy that can be seen on Netflix.
Perez, 31, talked to Variety about Elordi’s remarks in the GQ cover story from earlier this week, in which Elordi referred to the flicks as “ridiculous.” The celebration for GQ’s Men of the Year was held at Bar Marmont in West Hollywood on Thursday.
“I thought it was a shame because, to my knowledge, everybody else had such a wonderful experience,” stated the Euphoria actor, who is 26 years old at the time of the conversation.
“It’s a shame that was his experience on the set,” Perez proceeded to say. It was a period when we really needed something like that, especially when those movies came out, and it was during a time when those movies came out.
Perez stated, “I know from our fan interactions, getting stopped everywhere I go, what Kissing Booth means to people and what it brought them during such a dark time. It brought them hope.” The only bright spot I can see is that he continued to make other people happy and laugh.
In 2018, the first installment of the romantic comedy franchise was made available to the public. Immediately after, in 2020 and 2021, at the height of the COVID-19 epidemic, two sequels were released.
In the film adaptation of the story, Elordi played the role of bad boy football player Noah Flynn, who was the love interest of a quirky version of Elle Evans, played by Joey King. Marco Pea, the new student at school who began a chaotic love triangle centered on Evans was played by Perez, who joined the cast for the second film as the character of Marco Pea. Additionally, Perez made a comeback for the third episode.
“Those movies are complete and utter nonsense. They do not apply to everyone. According to what Elordi told GQ for the 2023 Men of the Year Issue, “they’re an escape.”
He continued by saying that the decision to participate in three of the films had the feeling of falling into “a trap” since “it can become 15 for them, and none for you.” You are devoid of creative thought and you are lifeless on the inside. Therefore, it’s a really good dance.
Elordi said that he wasn’t unaware of how his statements were being interpreted, but that he thought it was vital to stay loyal to his convictions regardless of how others may react.
“How is caring about your output pretentious?” he said. “But not caring, and knowingly feeding people s—, knowing that you’re making money off of people’s time, which is literally the most valuable thing that they have,” he added. “Caring about your output is not pretentious.” What makes it such a great thing to do?
Elordi claimed that he was “so happy” to work on films that stretched him artistically such as Priscilla, which was directed by Sofia Coppola, and Saltburn, which was directed by Emerald Fennell. This was in contrast to going along the route of rom-coms with movies like The Kissing Booth.
Additionally, in August of 2022, he gave an interview to GQ in which he discussed the Elvis Presley biography. Elordi acknowledged that after reading Peter Guralnick’s biography of Elvis Presley, Last Train to Memphis, he had a different perspective on the person responsible for the smash “Hound Dog.”
“All of a sudden, it hit me like a ton of bricks: Elvis Presley aspired to be James Dean. He aspired to have the charisma of Marlon Brando. He added, “I’ve researched almost every actor working during that time period, and I mistook [Elvis] for an entertainer and a singer.” “But then he was an actor.”