Jacob Elordi Says He Never Wanted to Make Those ‘Ridiculous’ Kissing Booth Movies

Marcos Cruz/Netflix

Jacob Elordi is in his Robert Pattinson era.

Just like Pattinson, who famously derided the Twilight saga for years, the 26-year-old actor wants to make sure everyone knows he is not a fan of the Kissing Booth movies, which launched his career in 2018. “I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies,” the actor, who played shirtless bad boy Noah Flynn in the Netflix trilogy, recently told GQ. “Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape.”

Elordi, who gained critical acclaim for his portrayal of a more psychotic version of this archetype in the HBO’s Euphoria, is much happier with his career now that he’s starring in indie darlings like Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla and Emerald Fennell’s Saltburn. In fact, he warns that Martin Scorsese’s “one for me, one for them” take on filmmaking is often a “trap.”

“Because it can become 15 for them, none for you,” he said. “You have no original ideas and you’re dead inside. So it’s a fine dance. My ‘one for them,’ I’ve done it.” Stop kicking, Jacob! The Kissing Booth is already dead!

This is far from the first time Jacob Elordi has spurned the YA rom-com, much to the alleged chagrin of his ex-girlfriend and costar Joey King. Following the premiere of The Kissing Booth 2 in 2020, Elordi claimed he hadn’t seen his own film yet (a move Pattinson fans will also recognize). I haven’t seen it,” Elordi told Variety. “You’ve seen more than I have. I don’t know if I’m allowed to say that, but I haven’t.”

King appeared to call Elordi out for lying in a since-deleted tweet, according to fan screenshots. “Jacob watched it,” she allegedly wrote. “He’s capping.”

At the end of the day, Elordi and Pattinson are more than welcome to criticize their own work. Still, it’s important to notice the imbalance in the way we as a society applaud men like Elordi and Pattinson for their candor, while raging against women like Rachel Zegler, who faced massive backlash for saying she didn’t like Snow White as a child. And before you claim that’s different, remember that Elordi said Lilo & Stitch was his only frame of reference for Elvis before booking his role in Priscilla, which is objectively hilarious.

Robert Pattinson appeared to end his war on Twilight sometime around 2019. “It seems like with younger people in their late teens, early 20s, it’s sort of become quite a hip thing to like,” Pattinson said during one interview with USA Today. “It’s a fascinating second wave of people appreciating it, which is kind of cool.”

He continued, “It’s lovely now that the mania is not so intense. People come up [to me] and just have very fond memories of it. It’s a really sweet thing. I think the only scary part was right in the thick of it all, when it was very, very intense. Now the intensity has died down and it’s just very warm memories.”

Perhaps Jacob Elordi will one day look back at The Kissing Booth with warm memories of his own…but then again, probably not.

Originally Appeared on Glamour