Saltburn’s Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan leaning in for kiss at premiere sends fans into meltdown
Saltburn director Emerald Fennell explains why nudity and ‘fluids’ were essential to the story. (Getty/Variety)
Jacob Elordi and Barry Keoghan have got the internet hot under the collective collar after they jokingly leaned in for a kiss during the premiere of their new film, Saltburn.
Saltburn follows 26-year-old Priscilla star Jacob Elordi as Felix Catton, a member of the elite Catton family who own the sprawling Saltburn estate.
Oscar nominee and The Banshees of Inisherin actor Barry Keoghan, 31, is Oliver Quick, a supposedly working class misfit who strikes up an unlikely friendship with Felix as they both embark on a new academic year at Oxford University.
Felix invites Oliver to stay with him and his family – his mother Elsbeth (Gone Girl’s Rosamund Pike), father James (Can You Ever Forgive Me?’s Richard E. Grant), sister Venetia (Conversation With Friends’ Alison Oliver) and cousin Farleigh (Midsommar’s Archie Madekwe) – for a summer he’ll never forget.
After much fan speculation around the film’s homoerotic subtext, director Emerald Fennell confirmed to PinkNews that Saltburn is “absolutely” a queer thriller, describing it as a film where “everyone wants everyone”.
At the Los Angeles premiere last night (14 November), Elordi and Keoghan appeared to lean into that queerness, both metaphorically and physically.
After arriving on the red carpet, the pair were filmed standing next to one another and posing for photographs, before Keoghan appeared to stare intensely at Elordi.
When Elordi noticed Keoghan gazing at him, the pair began to lean in for a kiss.
While they swiftly pulled away and laughed instead of actually locking lips, their teasing alone has been enough to send the internet into a spiral.
“Get you a man who looks at you the way that Barry Keoghan looks at Jacob Elordi,” one fan commented.
“I’ll be honest the only thing keeping me barely mentally intact is knowing I’ll be seeing this movie next Thursday,” a second declared.
“Barry was ready to risk it all,” a third guessed, while a fourth added: “This is the kind of queerbaiting I can get behind.”
Some fans have been sharing comments that are probably too explicit to repeat here, while others have been utterly fixated on the height difference between the two actors.
Saltburn is out in selected cinemas on 17 November and all cinemas on 24 November.
