Jacob Elordi is feeling the trappings of fame become a little too real, and it unfortunately was caught on camera and sparked online discourse.
The Australian actor, 28, was filmed arriving at a train station in Paris to hop on the Eurostar, and was followed around by photographers and members of the paparazzi.
Two men followed him as part of his security detail, and for the most part, the exchange was quiet and civil, until the point that Jacob, just before getting on an elevator, took out one of his headphones to address the paps himself.
"We love you, Jacob," some said to him as he walked, and the Euphoria star in return told them: "You make it really hard for me to live when you do this."
As another once again said: "We love you," he replied: "I don't love you. You make it really hard for me to live, all of you, you make it really hard for me." The actor remained calm throughout, then getting on an elevator with his entourage and departing.
The exchange divided online fans, many of whom sympathized with the actor, who was thrust into the limelight when he was just 21 with his debut in the popular Kissing Booth film series, which began in 2018, quickly making him a young star. That was further solidified when he began starring as Nate Jacobs in HBO's groundbreaking Euphoria. He is now considered a Hollywood and TV land mainstay.
"People who are commenting 'Who do he think he is blabla', imagine being a star, and being constantly followed and filmed by strangers who said, 'I love you.' It's not love bro, this is harassment," one fan commented on the video, with another similarly adding: "This is honestly heartbreaking. Fame is not a free pass for the world to ignore someone's boundaries. Paparazzi may choose this profession, but that doesn't take away a person's right to exist without being hunted."
A few others felt that this exchange, unfortunately, was to be expected in a public place, especially with security detail around the actor making his presence all the more noticeable.
"This bodyguard guy is super extra. I'd be more annoyed by him than fans," one social media user posited, with another similarly saying: "He's being led around why…his bodyguard keeps grabbing his arm, I think he's ok."
For the majority of his public career, Jacob has remained a private figure to many fans, eschewing social media (after deactivating his Instagram account just last year) and regularly refusing to talk about his personal life in interviews, citing the desire to maintain distance between his personal and public personas.
"You feel like an impostor," he recently told The National when asked about his idea of fame and what it can do to you. "You're met with this public idea of who you are, and it's never going to reflect who you actually are."
"Playing this role [in the series The Narrow Road to the Deep North] taught me that it's better to talk about it than bury it down for the entirety of your life."