Jacob Elordi on his most confronting role yet

Jacob Elordi has played his fair share of heartthrobs and outsiders. But his latest role, a surgeon captured during World War II and forced to build the Thai-Burma Death Railway, might just be the one that stays with him the longest.

Australia Correspondent Aziz Al Sa’afin sat down with Elordi and the cast of Narrow Road to the Deep North ahead of its release on April 18.

Elordi starred as Dorrigo Evans in the six-part Australian mini-series based on the Booker Prize-winning novel by Richard Flanagan, whose father survived the Thai-Burma Railway.

It tells the harrowing story of POWs who endured unimaginable conditions under Japanese captivity.

More than 13,000 Allied soldiers died building the railway. Among them were at least 13 recorded New Zealand casualties, their names etched into war cemeteries in Thailand.

To prepare for filming, the cast endured gruelling conditions, shedding weight and wearing down their bodies to reflect the physical toll. But Elordi said it was the emotional impact that left the deepest mark.

“It wasn’t even really physical. It was a spiritual kind of experience,” he said. “You went to this kind of primal place, and we all went there together. It was this silent thing that happened sort of behind your eyes.”

He described a sense of mateship that carried through both on and off-screen.

“All sort of ego and everything gets cut away when you’re doing that sort of thing together. It was profound,” he said. “I don’t recommend anyone does it, but there was something quite magical about it.”

The series was directed by Justin Kurzel, known for bold and often brutal Australian films like Snowtown, Nitram and True History of the Kelly Gang. His raw, cinematic style was felt throughout the adaptation.

“Justin has made important cinema from his first film, and he cares deeply,” Elordi said. “This really is, like, the best-case scenario and the best way to come home.”

Rising Australian star Thomas Weatherall, who played a young Indigenous soldier named Frank, said he chased the role harder than any before, joking that he was surprised his agent was still talking to him.

“I was a fan of the novel long before I ever knew this was happening. And I just knew there was one character I could really gun for,” he said. “I think he’s a great character when it comes to Indigenous representation in Australian literature, full stop.”

But beyond the trenches, the series was also a story of love.

At the centre of the emotional fallout was Dorrigo’s complicated relationship with two women: Amy, played by Odessa Young, and Ella, played by Olivia DeJonge.

“She’s a firecracker,” Young said of her character. “You don’t really get to see rowdy women in imperial dramas.”

“Ella’s purposeful and passionate,” DeJonge added. “She is one of Dorrigo’s lifelong loves and navigates through a tumultuous time in Australian history and the world with grace and sincerity.”

Simon Baker joined the ensemble as Keith, Amy’s husband and Dorrigo’s uncle, a man caught in a web of pre-war passion that continued to haunt them all.

“He’s a publican in South Australia embroiled in a love story with Amy and Dorrigo before he goes to war,” Baker said. “It’s this sustaining love that kind of carries him through and in a way, kind of tortures him.”

The series jumps between timelines, from jungle to aftermath, revealing not just the horrors of war but the lingering trauma in the years that follow.

While it may have been the most confronting role he had taken on, Elordi said it was also one of the most meaningful, particularly being able to film it on home soil, with an all-local cast and crew.

“For the longest while, no one even knew I was Australian. This is the first time I’ve come home, and people know who I am here. It means something,” he said.

“We don’t make a lot of stuff here,” Baker added. “So when there’s a quality project like this, it was pretty much a no-brainer for me.”

The Narrow Road to the Deep North is released on Prime Video on April 18.