Wuthering Heights' Jacob Elordi reveals surprise Home and Away and Neighbours connection

 It worked out alright in the end!

He earned worldwide recognition in big-budget international hits like Euphoria and Saltburn, and he'll soon be seen in Wuthering Heights as one of the best-known literary characters of all time - but it seems Jacob Elordi previously had a huge desire to be a soap star. So much so, he auditioned somewhere in the region of five times.

The actor was born and raised in Australia, and has admitted to previously trying on multiple occasions to win roles in his homeland's iconic continuing dramas such as Home and Away and Neighbours.

Speaking on tonight's episode of The Graham Norton Show, he recalled: "I tried so hard. I auditioned for Neighbours twice and Home and Away maybe three times, but they just didn't cast me."

Elordi's Wuthering Heights co-star Margot Robbie famously got her big start in Neighbours, playing Donna Freedman from 2008 to 2011 and making a cameo appearance in what was then believed to be the show's finale in 2022.

Also speaking on The Graham Norton Show, she revealed the lengths she had to go to for the job prior to her casting, with the actor recalling a story regarding her trouble with accents.

When I started on TV I had to have a dialect coach because I come from Queensland and I was thought [to be] too Australian for Neighbours," she said. "I couldn't hear I had a bad accent, but they said, 'You are just awful to listen to!'"

Wuthering Heights - in which Robbie plays Cathy and Elordi is Heathcliff - is in cinemas next week (13 February), and has picked up some encouraging early reactions from critics on social media.

IndieWire's Anne Thompson posted on X: "Wuthering Heights will open well and soar at the box office. It's a rip-roaring, bodice-ripping crowd-pleaser. Both Jacob Elordi and Margot Robbie will come out ahead. Audiences will fall for Emerald Fennell's garish visuals and unrestrained direction. Everything is BIG."

Elsewhere, critic Jonathan Sim called the film "steamy, emotional, and captivating", while Griffin Schiller compared director Emerald Fennell to Baz Luhrmann, saying she achieved a "seductive, grand scale" to make a "sweeping romance".

Not everyone was so keen, however, with freelance critic Rendy Jones quoting a notorious meme of the late Aretha Franklin - in which she was asked about Taylor Swift's musical abilities and swerved it by talking about her "beautiful gowns".