Kissing Booth stars turn on Jacob Elordi, insist that the Netflix movies were actually good

Jacob Elordi is a real actor now, after well-received roles in Priscilla and Saltburn, and that means he no longer has any interest in—pshaw—pedestrian trash. That, at least, was sort of the vibe he gave off last month in a GQ profile that involved him dragging Netflix’s Kissing Booth movies, which gave him his big acting break a few years ago. “I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies,” he explained, calling them “ridiculous” and that they’re just “an escape” for people.

Now more members of the Kissing Both cast have chimed in, and they have no interest in Elordi’s hot take about the artistic merit of their trashy Netflix rom-com franchise. Speaking with Variety, franchise star Joey King said that it’s “unfortunate anyone would feel that way,” adding, “I had a great time making those movies, no matter what anyone says.” The “anyone” there feels pretty pointed, considering that she’s specifically talking about something said by someone whose name she knows, but it’s clear that King is still loyal to the series that made her famous.

So is fellow Kissing Booth actor Taylor Zakhar Perez, who said to Variety that Elordi’s comments were “a shame,” explaining, “to my knowledge, everybody else had such a wonderful experience.” Perez went a little harder on Elordi, saying that the movies came out at “a time when we really needed something like that,” and he knows what Kissing Booth means to people from the interactions he’s had with fans. He figures that, even if Elordi is going to have that attitude about the movies, “the silver lining is he still made people laugh and feel good.”

Maybe that’s the key to all of this: Based on Priscilla and Saltburn, it doesn’t really seem like Elordi is particularly interested in making people laugh or feel good.