When celebrities give you the ick

Plus: the "millennial pause", Gen Z's alleged sex recession, and what to watch at the cinema

What is it about Hollywood that can inspire such pompous earnestness? 

Last month, I wrote about Brad Pitt and his viral GQ interview in which he said that if he wasn’t acting he was dying and described himself as a “creature” who “speaks through art”. Last week, another star appeared to suffer from a serious case of Hollywooditus: Jacob Elordi. 

Elordi, if you don’t know, was the toxic hottie from Euphoria (Nate, his excellent breakout role), and will soon star opposite Rosamund Pike in the follow up to Emerald Fennell’s Promising Young Woman, Saltburn, about an aristocratic English family – which sounds amazing. 

But my stomach turned when I read that, growing up, he read biographies of Marlon Brando, pierced his ears to look like Daniel Day-Lewis and wore the same Saint Christopher medal as Steve McQueen. He is currently carrying around his Saltburn script in “a worn leather binder that used to belong to Gary Oldman” and revealed that he studied documentaries of sharks to get “in the mind” of Nate, because, “Nate is always watching.”

He went on to tell the writer that, “for me, acting is breathing”, and by the time I got to his final quote about the poet Charles Bukowski, which follows a passage on overcoming fear and jumping off a metaphorical cliff, I had officially got the ick.

“Bukowski has this thing that’s like, if you go all the way, go all the way. You might end up on a bench. You might end up in jail. You’ll lose girlfriends, wives, family. But if you go all the way, I guarantee you, you reserve a seat with the gods.”

I don’t actually know what that quote even means, but I do know that when I was younger, a boy tried to impress me by quoting long, slightly incorrect passages from Bukowski’s poetry and that’s probably enough context for everyone.

Now, I’m very aware that there is no doubt something inherently repressed and British about an aversion to overly earnest behaviour. Earnestness, in its basic form, is actually rather a good thing. It suggests someone cares about the things they do, and wants to do them well. It suggests someone who is at ease with themselves and their aspirations, who has no issue with people knowing how much effort they put into achieving what they want, and how much it hurts to fail. And that is quite commendable.

Because at the end of the day, it is nice that Elordi felt so inspired by Hollywood from such a young age, was conscientious enough to read biographies of his “guiding beacons” and was so committed to his Euphoria character that he started Googling sharks. Plus he’s an excellent actor so clearly it’s all paid off.

But unfortunately, there is just something about Elordi’s naked zeal and ardour for Hollywood that has now made it impossible for me to watch him on screen in quite the same way again. Brad Pitt too. No matter how much I try and forget, I can’t look at either of them without thinking of Elordi sticking tiny little post-its on passages from his Marlon Brando biography or Pitt caressing his handmade ceramic candle-sticks which he previously described making as “a solo, very quiet, very tactile kind of sport”. 

It’s the same with dating, you want a guy to turn up in a crisp white T Shirt but you absolutely don’t want to imagine him ironing it. 

In fact, the only reason I can still watch Jeremy Strong in Succession following the New Yorker profile that went viral for revealing Strong’s own high-minded earnestness (which also included unrestrained worship at the altar of Daniel Day-Lewis, and whose penchant for method actually “worried” his co-star Brian Cox) is that deranged earnestness is actually what defines his Succession character Kendall, so it works. 

For anyone who felt similarly queased by Elordi’s interview (which, admittedly, also includes some very thoughtful and interesting ideas on masculinity, and is very well written by Clay Skipper) may I recommend to you this rather quirky Variety interview with Angus Cloud – Elordi’s Euphoria co-star, who plays laconic drug dealer Fezco – also published last week.

Twenty-four-year-old Cloud is a kind of anti-celebrity who couldn’t be less earnest if he tried. With no prior acting experience, he was plucked off the street in Brooklyn for his role as Fez, and clearly has no interest in being a cog in the Hollywood machine or providing any kind of romantic backstory for his journey to stardom. This makes for a particularly hilarious interview, with the writer seemingly charmed and baffled in equal measure, not quite knowing what to do with his extensive periods of silence and Cloud literally “walking in the opposite direction” when they meet in a parking lot. 

Cloud is in fact so uninterested by his glitzy interview in one of America’s biggest publications that most of the profile is not held together by dialogue, but by bemused descriptions of what Cloud is doing: from falling asleep in the cab while holding a carrot juice to dropping his ice-cream cone on the ground and wiping off the dirt with his bare hands to continue eating it. (This profile also proves just how crucial “activities” with a celebrity interviewee can be – had Cloud been interviewed on Zoom or in his publicist’s office, I think the piece would have been unpublishable.) 

But perhaps the most refreshing celebrity right now is Julia Fox of Uncut Gems, who recognises the preposterous silliness of being famous and who therefore "performs" fame with a winking, joyous sense of freedom. Fox has been described as "the perfect famous person", "a metaphor for celebrity culture" and her very own muse. She blogged about her own dates with Kanye West, described her upcoming memoir as "not a memoir, but a masterpiece" and recently went shopping for groceries wearing just her underwear while carrying her jeans as a handbag. Because, as Gen Z is constantly trying to tell us millennials: the antidote to earnestness is irony.

This week in links

I’ve been reading about the “millennial pause”, which was first used to describe the awkward pause with which millennials begin their TikToks, and has now come to stand for comic millennial unease in today’s online world. A Gen Z TikTok creator explains: “The way the quintessential Millennial behaves online is basically a bunch of silly little nuances strung together to create a personality that is very giddy and excitable about the normal or mundane.” The piece then goes on to mock millennials’ earnest use of portrait mode on Instagram, putting puns in their captions and zooming dramatically on their faces for emphasis. 

Reader, it me.

As my Gen Z sister told me recently on holiday after I refused to approve her ‘candid’ (read: grotesque) shot of me beached by the pool and insisted on a portrait mode pose of me smiling over my shoulder, “it’s simply too much. It has to be ironic”. Well maybe she should have a word with Pitt and Elordi. 

I’ve been commissioning Thomas Hobbs to write about why Tim Westwood was always an embarrassment to rap music, with his appropriation of blackness and derogatory interviewing technique. If you haven’t watched the one with Cardi B… you will hardly believe your eyes. 

I’ve been interviewing the amazing Aitch for my podcast about his experience of fame. We all got quite drunk and the energy was chaotic but hilarious. Have a listen.

I’ve been writing about Gen Z’s alleged ‘sex recession’ for Vogue. Turns out, actually they’re having more, and much better, sex than millennials.

I’ve been watching NOPE, the new Jordan Peele film which continues his excellent partnership with Daniel Kaluuya, who stars as an animal trainer who is attacked by what could he thinks is a UFO. It’s sci-fi meets Western meets horror and it’s a brilliant commentary on society’s warped impression that they can “control” nature, be that animals, the earth, or fellow people, and create a spectacle out of it to be filmed and exploited for financial gain. (Oh hello, Hollywood!) Or at least that’s what it seemed like to me. Plus it’s beautifully filmed, so go and see it on the big screen. Would love to know your theories on what it’s about - including the killer chimp - so reply to this email!

I’ve been listening to this gorgeous house banger, Picture in My Mind, by PinkPantheress on repeat, and if you love her music then you should read this very good Pitchfork interview with her by Emma Madden, where they spend a cute, wholesome day at a theme park. 

I can’t stop thinking about the glow-up that has hit Koko, the formerly grotty Camden club which now has its own member’s club The House of Koko and an absolutely gorgeous rooftop restaurant where they do killer Palomas and truffled yuzu seabass. Also, the ‘Dome’, a dark, sexy little cocktail bar up one level from the restaurant is where you’ll find all the North London celebs. I spied both Clara Amfo and Munya Chawawa. 

Thanks for reading Pass the Aux! Say hello on Twitter @eleanorhalls1 or send me an email eleanorahalls@gmail.com.

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