Now that Saltburn’s infamous bathtub scene has taken over the internet, Jacob Elordi is admitting he was thrilled to bring it to the big screen.
“I was just really excited when I read that scene because you don’t really see things like that in mainstream movies a lot of the time,” the actor, 26, told Stream Wars in a December 2023 interview. “It’s just great that [writer and director] Emerald [Fennell] was allowed to push those boundaries and expose people like that I think.”
In the film, Elordi plays wealthy Felix Catton who becomes the object of fellow classmate Oliver’s (Barry Keoghan) obsessive affection. Felix takes Oliver under his wing and into his family estate, Saltburn, where Oliver gets a taste of how the other half lives. As their bond grows, so does Oliver’s obsession with Felix which plays out in many twists and turns. The film was released in theaters in November 2023.
The particularly shocking bathtub scene, in which Oliver licks up Felix’s bathwater, has quickly taken the internet by storm. Elordi, meanwhile, tends to avoid seeking out reactions to his work.
“I haven’t really heard too many because I try to hide away from it,” he told Stream Wars, adding that he did, however, sneak in to witness an audience watching Saltburn in the theater. “I went to a screening of the picture in Brisbane when it first played and it was unbelievable because everybody was engaged and gasping at the screen,” he recalled. I haven’t been in a movie like that in a really, really long time.”
The bathtub scene has become such a viral pop culture moment, it’s even inspired a candle titled “Jacob Elordi’s Bath Water Candle.” Elordi, for his part, previously made light of the NSFW scene during the Saltburn press run. “I was very proud,” he quipped to Variety of the scene in November 2023. “I was very proud to have Barry Keoghan guzzling it like that.”
Beyond its shock value, Saltburn has been gaining steam in the midst of awards conversations. Both Keoghan and Rosamund Pike, who plays Elordi’s mother in the film, have both been nominated for Golden Globes for the 2024 ceremony and could be recognized at the 2024 Academy Awards, which air in March. Elordi, for his part, also received critical acclaim for playing Elvis in Sofia Coppola’s Priscilla.
