The Australian star also told Esquire UK how he was “afraid” of playing one of the lead roles in Wuthering Heights, adding: “There will probably always be an imposter element to acting for me.”
Elordi was interviewed for the magazine by Emerald Fennell, who directed him in the film, which she adapted from the Emily Bronte novel.
Elordi said: “The older I get, the more nervous I get, and I was afraid of Wuthering Heights. It was a big movie, and the crew was big and the sets were big.
“I try to make sure I’ve turned every stone and looked in every corner before playing a character, but the truth is you can’t.
“The fear comes from: have I looked enough? Have I studied enough? Have I read enough?
“There’s 600 people there that have put so much work and effort in, who’ve toiled and waited and not seen their families, and then you need to come in and put a layer onto the cake.
“There is a pressure that you’re not going to be what people want you to be. There will probably always be an imposter element to acting for me.”
Elordi, who plays the role of Heathcliff opposite fellow Australian Margot Robbie’s Catherine Earnshaw in Wuthering Heights, discussed his teenage years with Fennell, who also directed him in Saltburn.
He said: “I was at boarding school and I found it very restrictive.
“The only way out was through watching subversive films or reading subversive books. The thing about cinema and theatre that’s great is they are kind of voyeuristic, they’re permissive, they let you do things.
“If you’re at a very strict school, plays are the only time you can swear and, like, touch people.
“Looking back, it’s kind of weird the amount of touching that was allowed.”
Describing how he got into acting, he said: “I had a lot more courage when I was a teenager, which is when I first went on stage.
“At that point it was the feeling of doing something that wasn’t sports-oriented and getting praised for it.
“But the thing that made me want to act was when I read Waiting for Godot.”
Elordi appears on the cover of the March/April issue of Esquire UK, which is out on February 18.