Jacob Elordi was inspired to act by Heath Ledger.
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The 28-year-old Australian has scored two Golden Globes nominations en route to becoming one of the most sought-after stars in Hollywood.
Elordi is nominated for his role in Frankenstein and is also in the running for best male actor for his performance in the Australian POW miniseries The Narrow Road to the Deep North.
He's now revealed who inspired him to pursue a career in the movie business.
"I was quite loud as a kid, which is every actors' thing. They didn't know what to do with me. There was a teacher at school, Mrs McMahon, who decided to cast me as the cat in The Cat in the Hat musical," he told Variety.
Elordi also recalled feeling inspired by Heath Ledger, who died in January 2008, aged 28.
"As soon as I was singing and dancing with the big hat on, I knew that that was what I wanted to do," he said.
"I also saw Heath Ledger in The Dark Knight when I was about 12. I realised he was from Australia and then the cog started turning that this could be a viable thing for me to do."
Meanwhile, Elordi recently confessed that he experienced "moments of great anguish" while shooting Frankenstein.
The actor was required to lose a significant amount of weight in a relatively short period of time in order to star in the Guillermo del Toro-directed movie, and Elordi admits that his efforts took a real toll on him.
"My brain was kind of all over the place," he told the Los Angeles Times newspaper.
"I had these moments of great anguish at around 3am in the morning. I'd wake and my body was in such pain. And I just realised that it was a blessing with Frankenstein coming up, because I could articulate these feelings, this suffering."
However, Elordi feels he was destined to play the part of Frankenstein's monster.
"It came from some other place," he said.
"It felt like a growth, like a cancer in my stomach that told me that I had to play this thing. I've heard stories about this from actors, and when you hear them, you kind of go, 'Sure, you were meant to play this thing.' But I really feel like I was."
Australian Associated Press
