Ansel Elgort Flying High

The dashing actor talks Broadway, ballet and making it big in Hollywood!

- Sara Tapia

We've got Australia’s very own Hugh Jackman to thank for inspiring Ansel Elgort to become an actor. The 25-year-old – who stars in the upcoming The Goldfinch with another homegrown star Nicole Kidman – was watching the actor on stage when he decided a career in the arts was the job for him.

‘When I was four years old, I saw a Broadway production of Oklahoma,’ Ansel reminisces. ‘I think Hugh Jackman was in it. I didn’t know who he was at the time because I was too young, but I loved the guy. He was singing a song and I remember being like, “Oh my God, I wanna be that guy!” From then, I was totally into the show. I got the soundtrack, I learnt every song and I knew that’s what I wanted to do. I saw that and that was it!’

And so a lifelong love affair with the arts began. ‘I actually started performing when I was nine but that was in ballet, not acting,’ he explains. ‘Then one thing led to another and I ended up in acting school in New York.’