Jacob Elordi has captured the attention of fans on social media once again after a particular moment on the red carpet had some recoiling – and others declaring it sweet and ‘real’.
The 28-year-old actor, who became a first-time Oscar nominee for his performance in Frankenstein last week, is deep in a massive press tour for his newest movie, Wuthering Heights.
It’s a film that’s already been grabbing a fierce amount of attention ahead of its release thanks to director Emerald Fennell’s bold and non-historically accurate approach, with Jacob and co-star Margot Robbie only adding to that as two of the hottest stars in Hollywood right now.
On Wednesday night in Los Angeles though, at the film’s world premiere, Jacob sparked a huge reaction by spitting his chewing gum out and putting it in his mother’s hand.
The clip has gone viral in the intervening days, showing the star walking over to his mum, Melissa, on the red carpet where he discreetly spits out his gum and hands it over to her.
Jacob then clasps his hands around her closed fist gratefully and smiles, patting her on the back before he turns around to get back to his duties.
His mum, ever the pro, takes his gum without batting an eyelid. However, fans were much more struck by the moment.
‘How much for the gum?’ quipped Jessi Cruickshank on Instagram while many other fans joked that they were ‘right there’ and ‘ready, willing and able’ to take that job instead.
Others were stunned by the exchange though with Bree asking: ‘Does anyone else feel like he should just… handle the gum himself?’
Several fans complaining pointed out that spitting food into a parent’s hand was what toddlers and children do and branded the move ‘disgusting’.
Others were even more incensed, calling it ‘abhorrent’ and ‘degrading’ of him to have not used a tissue and treated Melissa like a human ‘trash bag’.
But many hadn’t clocked that Melissa was Jacob’s mum, thinking she was a publicist or assistant, but a former personal assistant in the comments insisted she’d ‘had to do worse’ in the job anyway.
Other stars were also chiming in, with actor Adrien Brody quipping: ‘Relatable.’
Do you think it was disgusting of Jacob to give his spat-out gum to his mum?
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Yes, it's gross
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No, she's his mum!
This of course comes after he infamously lobbed his chewing gum at this partner, Georgina Chapman, after taking to the stage to accept his Oscar for best actor at last year’s Academy Awards.
Fans also celebrated the close bond between Jacob and his mum, pointing out that mothers often ‘save our children from the most bizarre or awkward situations’, and praised it for being ‘a real moment’ on the carpet.
It was described on Reddit as ‘almost endearing’ as many mothers insisted they’d have ‘no issue’ with doing this for their kids.
For those frustrated that Jacob didn’t put his gum in his pocket (we can assume he was caught without any tissues), many were also reminding folks that his sharp Bottega Veneta black suit was almost certainly a loan for the event – making used gum a horrible thing to have to fish out later.
It’s not the first time Jacob’s behaviour on a red carpet has made headlines after he was criticised for a short ‘super rude’ exchange at Venice Film Festival in September, where he told someone described as a bodyguard to ‘go away’ and not ‘tell him what to do’.
However his fans defended him fiercely as he was interacting with those who had lined up to be there at the time, taking photographs with them, at the time.
Venice seems to be the place for viral premiere moments anyway, as it’s also where Oscar Isaac and Jessica Chastain had everyone fanning themselves after a steamy arm kiss in 2021 – and where people insisted that Harry Styles had ‘spat’ on his Don’t Worry Darling co-star Chris Pine (he didn’t) in 2022.
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