Joey King Responds to Jacob Elordi’s Criticism of ‘Kissing Booth’

Joey King becomes candid about the recent criticism ex Jacob Elordi had for them The kissing booth movies.

“I think it’s a shame that anyone feels that way,” King, 24, said. Variety during a Balenciaga fashion show in Los Angeles on Saturday, December 2. “I had a great time making those movies, no matter what anyone says.”

King, who played Elle Evans in the Netflix trilogy, added that she would even be interested in expanding their franchise.

“If there was a fourth part, it would be about where Elle and the gang are in their 50s or something, just to check back in with them and see where they’re at,” King said.

King and Elordi, 26, starred as love interests in the Kissing position films from 2018 to 2021. (The couple also dated in real life from 2017 to 2018.) Elordi, who played Noah Flynn, recently slammed the romantic comedies, saying he felt “dead inside” while filming them.

“I didn’t want to make those films before I made those films,” Elordi said GQ in November. “Those movies are ridiculous. They are not universal. They are an escape.”

For Elordi, the films were some of his first in the industry. The actor next starred on HBO’s Euphoria as Nate Jacobs and received critical acclaim earlier this year for his role as Elvis Presley in the 2023 film Priscilla.

Elordi described The kissing booth as a “one for them, one for me” movie, referencing an old Hollywood expression that describes when actors make big-budget films only to later appear in smaller passion projects.

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“That one’s a trap, too,” Elordi noted of the sentence. “Because it could be 15 for them, none for you. You have no original ideas and you are dead inside. So it’s a nice dance. My ‘one for them’, I did it.

King wasn’t the only costar to address Elordi’s comments. Taylor Zakhar Perez told Variety in November that Elordi’s comments were “unfortunate,” noting that, as far as he knows, “everyone else had such a great experience.”

Perez, 31, further told the outlet that through his own interactions with fans and being stopped “everywhere,” he can see what The kissing booth “means to people and what it has brought them in such a dark time.” (Perez joined the trilogy as Marco Peña during the second film. He reprized his role for the third and final film, which was released during the coronavirus pandemic.)

“I think the silver lining is that [Elordi] still made people laugh and feel good,” Perez added.

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Elordi, for his part, told the story Variety Last month he said he had not heard from any of his former colleagues about his comments, but made it clear he is “incredibly grateful to everyone involved.”

Elordi’s recent comments weren’t the first time he’s opened up about his time with the franchise. In 2021, he said Esquire that he felt “corny” and “terribly misunderstood” because of his previous films.

“I had to prove that I was a serious actor,” he explained.