Joey King is getting candid about the recent criticism ex Jacob Elordi had for their The Kissing Booth movies.
“I think it’s unfortunate anyone would feel that way,” King, 24, told Variety at a Balenciaga fashion show in Los Angeles on Saturday, December 2. “I had a great time making those movies no matter what anyone says.”
King, who played Elle Evans in the Netflix trilogy, added that she would even be interested in expanding their franchise.
“If there were to be a fourth installment it would be picking up where Elle and the gang are in their fifties or something, just to drop back in with them and see where they’re at,” King said.
King and Elordi, 26, starred as love interests in the Kissing Booth movies from 2018 to 2021. (The pair also dated in real life from 2017 to 2018.) Elordi, who played Noah Flynn, recently slammed the romantic comedies, sharing that he felt “dead inside” while filming them.
“I didn’t want to make those movies before I made those movies,” Elordi told GQ in November. “Those movies are ridiculous. They’re not universal. They’re an escape.”
For Elordi, the films were one of his first within the industry. The actor went on to star on HBO’s Euphoria as Nate Jacobs and garnered critical acclaim earlier this year for his role as Elvis Presley in 2023’s Priscilla.
Elordi described The Kissing Booth as a “one for them, one for me” film, referencing an old Hollywood phrase that describes when actors do big-budget films in order to later appear in smaller passion projects.
“That one’s a trap as well,” Elordi noted of the phrase. “Because it can become 15 for them, none for you. You have no original ideas and you’re dead inside. So, it’s a fine dance. My ‘one for them,’ I’ve done it.”
King wasn’t the only costar who weighed in on Elordi’s remarks. Taylor Zakhar Perez told Variety in November that Elordi’s comments were “a shame,” and noted that to his knowledge “everybody else had such a wonderful experience.”
Perez, 31, further told the outlet that through his own interactions with fans and getting stopped “everywhere” he goes, he can see what The Kissing Booth “means to people and what it brought them during such a dark time.” (Perez joined the trilogy during the second film as Marco Peña. He reprised his role for the third and final film, which was released amid the coronavirus pandemic.)
“I guess the silver lining is [Elordi] still made people laugh and feel good,” Perez added.
Elordi, for his part, told Variety last month that he hadn’t heard from any of his former costars regarding his comments, but clarified that he is “incredibly grateful to everybody” involved in them.
Elordi’s recent remarks were not the first time he had gotten candid about his time with the franchise. In 2021, he told Esquire that he felt “corny” and “terribly misunderstood” because of his previous movies.
“I had to prove I was a serious actor,” he explained.
