Kissing Booth Star Taylor Zakhar Perez Responds to Jacob Elordi Slamming Franchise: ‘It’s a Shame’

Taylor Zakhar Perez and his The kissing booth colleague Jacob Elordi has mixed opinions about the hit Netflix trilogy.

On GQMen of the Year party at Bar Marmont in West Hollywood on Thursday, Perez, 31, spoke with Diversity on Elordi’s comments in GQ cover story from earlier this week, in which Elordi called the movies “ridiculous.”

“I thought it was a shame because, as far as I know, everyone else had such a wonderful experience,” said Fr Euphoria actor, 26.

“It’s a shame that was his experience on set,” Perez continued. “Especially when those movies came out, it was a time when we really needed something like that.”

Taylor Zakhar Perez in the movie ‘Kissing Girl’.

Marcos Cruz/NETFLIX

Perez continued: “I know from our interactions with the fans, I get stopped everywhere I go, what Kissing Booth means for the people and what it brought them in such a dark time. I guess the upside is that he was still making people laugh and feeling good.”

The first film in the rom-com franchise was released in 2018. Two sequels followed in 2020 and 2021 during the height of the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jacob Elordi and Joey King.

Marcos Cruz/NETFLIX

In the films, Elordi played football star bad boy Noah Flynn — in love with the quirky Elle Evans (Joey King). Perez joined the cast for the second film as Marco Peña, the new kid at school who begins a crazy love triangle around Evans. Perez is also back for a third installment.

Joey King ‘will never regret it’ Movies ‘Kissing Booth’ ‘No matter what anyone said’

“Those movies are funny. They are not universal. They are the escape,” Elordi said GQ for the Men of the Year 2023 edition.

Jakov Elordi.

Jack Bridgland/GQ

He added that signing a three-film deal felt almost like a “trap” because “it can become 15 for them, none for you. You have no original ideas and you’re dead inside. So it’s a good dance.”

Elordi said he was not unaware of how his comments were perceived, but felt it was important to stay true to his beliefs.

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“How is caring about your score pretentious?” he said, adding, “But not caring, and knowingly feeding people s—, knowing you’re cashing in on people’s time, which is literally the most valuable thing they have. How is that a great thing?”

Instead of continuing down the rom-com path with projects like The kissing boothElordi stated that he was “so happy” to work on films that stimulated him creatively, such as the Sofia Coppola film Priscilla and Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn.

Jacob Elordi admits that he mostly knew about Elvis Presley from Lilo & Stitch Before acting as a singer in Priscilla

Previously he also opened GQ in August 2022 about an Elvis Presley biopic. Elordi admitted he saw the “Hound Dog” hitmaker in a new light after purchasing Peter Guralnick’s biography of Presley Last train to Memphis.

“I was like, hell, Elvis Presley wanted to be James Dean. He wanted to be Marlon Brando. I researched almost every actor from that era and I passed [Elvis] as an entertainer and a singer,” he said. “But then he was an actor. ”

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Source: HIS Education