Jacob Elordi was hired “for a dime and nickel” for his role in ‘Oh Canada’.
The 27-year-old actor plays the young Leonard Fife in Paul Schrader’s adaptation of Russell Banks’ 2021 novel ‘Foregone’, and was hired for the role before his breakout part as Elvis Presley in ‘Priscilla’, a time when the director didn’t need a big “name” because he already had Richard Gere on board to play the older version of the character but he felt they had enough of a resemblance to one another.
Paul explained to The Hollywood Reporter: “We got him (Elordi) for a dime and nickel for that reason. I didn’t need a name. I had Richard and that was enough.
“But I saw his performance on Zoom and, if this was 40 years ago, this is the guy I would have cast for ‘American Gigolo’.”
As for Richard, the filmmaker thought it would be great to see the 75-year-old star “play old”.
He said: “To have seen Anthony Hopkins do it, and to have seen Jonathan Pryce and Tommy Lee Jones do it, I thought to myself, Richard [Gere] has never played old and it would help the buzz and sales for the film.”
The film studies a man considering his legacy before his death, and Paul had decided to adapt the novel just as its author was himself dying from terminal cancer.
He recalled: “I had heard Russell got sick and I was supposed to go up and see him like I did every summer. He called me and said, ‘I can’t do it this summer.’ And I started very quickly to realise this was serious.
“The irony is, of course, he died pretty much in the way he had researched it.”
Paul and Russell – who died in January 2023 aged 82 – discussed the project via email and the director recalled receiving one one day, in which the author quipped: “If I ever write again, I will never write another book about an artist dying of cancer who seeks redemption.”
Paul noted: “He had become that character.”
