Jordan Elsass says he may quit acting after Superman & Lois exit
Elsass says his mental health has been "rough" the last few years
Jordan Elsass has made his first statement on that eyebrow-raising Superman & Lois exit. Last week, Warner Bros. TV announced that Elsass had decided to leave the show for “personal reasons” and the role of Jonathan Kent would be recast.
Deadline reported that the actor had failed to join the cast in Vancouver by the production’s deadline; sources for the outlet were split as to whether he really quit or was fired, with both mental health issues and his vaccination status (unclear, but he reportedly used an exception during last season) raised as possible reasons for his departure.
However, in a Cameo video that was shared on Twitter yesterday, Elsass was somewhat ambiguous as to whether he’d left voluntarily. “It’s been a tough few weeks, as you might imagine, everything going on with the show. It’s been a tough few weeks,” he said. “You know, it’s sad, it’s a real shame. I know that, uh, I was pumped for season 3 for certain, but… you know, what’re you gonna do?”
However, he did state that “mental health is definitely 100% priority” and that it has to “take precedence.” He disclosed that the “last couple years…it’s been kinda rough.” (In June, Elsass posted on Instagram about checking into a facility for a month to deal with his mental health problems.) He went on, “I need some time to myself. I think that I may not even–you know, I’m still debating whether or not I’m even gonna act for a while. I may not. I may kind of go in a different direction.”
Acknowledging that his retirement would disappoint people (“Not even just like fans, but just like, people in my close circle”), he admitted that “going into a new field and really starting from scratch” would be a “shock,” especially to himself. “’Cause I never really did anything else, man, I started acting when I was like 12 and I didn’t really do–that’s it, that’s all I’ve ever done really,” Elsass said. “So, going in a whole new direction would be really interesting, but I think it could be well worth it.”
And thus child stardom is revealed to be the true villain once again. Whatever other problems he may have, it can’t have helped the nearly 21-year-old to have been experiencing them in front of a camera since he was a preteen. Hopefully, Elsass can get the help he needs during this new chapter.