Jason Reitman’s Men, Women & Children , opening on the heels of Divergent and The Fault in Our Stars , caps off a year that has catapulted the young actor into a level of fame he is still trying to understand. Plus: An exclusive clip from Men, Women & Children .
Ansel Elgort in Men, Women & Children
Dale Robinette / Paramount Pictures
Stretched out on a Toronto hotel sofa with his head resting on a pillow and his long legs perched in gold-flecked Louis Vuitton high-tops on the coffee table in front of him, Ansel Elgort looked like a man who was working hard to seem completely at ease. He was in town for the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival, promoting the ensemble drama Men, Women & Children from co-writer-director Jason Reitman (Juno, Up in the Air). Elgort shot the film largely in January, before the release of Divergent (in which he has a supporting role) and The Fault in Our Stars (in which he's the romantic lead opposite Shailene Woodley). He then spent his summer shooting Insurgent, the second film in the Divergent franchise. With Men, Women & Children opening in theaters through October, the film has neatly bookended what has become a most auspicious year that has radically changed the 20-year-old actor's life.
"When I was doing this movie, my life was very normal," Elgort told BuzzFeed News. "No one knew who I was, and that was awesome. Nobody. Then Divergent came out, and still not very many people knew who I was. There was hype around Fault in Our Stars, so a few people [did]. Then Fault came out. You know, the movie's made, like, $300 million worldwide, more than Divergent . And then it was like everyone [knew me] — every young person in the world. I went to Paris. Every young person I passed on the street knew who I was. Which is nuts. Around the world."
Ansel Elgort at the Sept. 6 Gala Screening of Men, Women & Children during the 2014 Toronto International Film Festival
Jason Kempin / Getty Images
That kind of dramatic, youthful pronouncement appears to come naturally to the New York City native. Elgort's feature film debut was just last year, in the remake of Carrie starring Chloë Grace Moretz, but he doesn't appear terribly interested in adopting the classic self-effacing posture of many up-and-coming actors. "As someone who's an influencer…" is a typical way for him to start a sentence, and he did not evince any hesitation before declaring, "I've joked with myself [that] I want a post-mortem Academy Award nomination. The last movie I do better be fucking good."
In person, this unabashed ambition and playful enthusiasm — mixed with Elgort's penchant for speaking so quickly that his sentences sound like one giant word — could be quite charming. It could also be quite illuminating, especially since Elgort was so uncommonly unguarded about what it's been like experiencing such a sudden onrush of intense fame this year. Rather than shy away from it, Elgort's seemingly natural self-confidence had him brimming with excitement, even as he admitted that there are at least a few pitfalls to losing his anonymity.
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