In his first leading man role in The Fault in Our Stars, out on June 6, he plays Augustus Waters, a teenage cancer patient who falls in love with a girl he meets in his support group, played byShailene Woodley.
“He’s not the typical leading man. He’s nerdy, he has one leg, he has cancer,” he told Teen Vogue.
There will surely be many more leading role for the rising star. As we celebrate the 20-year-old actor’s bright future, let’s take a look at his beginnings. Here’s what you need to know.
When it came to casting choices in the film adaptation of the John Green young adult novel, fans of the book were the first to comment.
They expressed their discontent that the Augustus Waters from the book has blue eyes and dark brown hair.
“I was on my phone nonstop, refreshing Twitter and reading all these aggressive comments,” he told the LA Times.
The author put the banter to rest, telling the paper, “Augustus was going to be the hardest character to cast. And I think once people see Ansel, they’ll realize there are more important things than the color of his eyes.”
“A lot of guys that came in knew how to play cool Gus,” he continued, “but very few of them knew how to be fragile while still being Augustus Waters.”
The casting for The Fault In Our Stars was announced while the pair was filming Divergent, the dystopian young adult film, also based on a popular book.
Although Woodley went from playing Elgort’s love interest to his brother, the actor didn’t seem to mind.
“You almost start to think that Shailene is two different people in the projects,” he told Time.
There is a definite mutual admiration between the actors.
As a child, Elgort would accompany his dad, fashion photographer Arthur Elgort, on photo shoots.
“My dad used to bring me along on shoots. I think I was 8 years old, or maybe younger. And put me in the picture,” he told Kimmel.
Many times, the shoots involved models, but at the time, the younger was unimpressed. ” I don’t think I had any clue when there’d be famous models around. It was always just fun seeing my dad work,” he said.
Elgort’s family includes an older brother and sister, who are also artists.
His brother, Warren, is a filmmaker in New York City.
His sister, Sophie, followed in their father’s footsteps as a fashion photographer in New York City.
Elgort grew up on Manhattan’s Upper West Side. The actor credits his city for giving him a lot of life experience. He said, “…it’s really nice coming from New York where there’s so many people and so many different experiences that you can have. It’s important to surround yourself with that, especially as an actor.”
As a teen, he attended La Guardia High School, which specializes in the arts.
The prestigious school is known for it’s famous alumni such as Jennifer Aniston and Sarah Michelle Gellar.
In February, he landed his first talk show appearance on Jimmy Kimmel Live. Kimmel did the honors of interviewing the young star, asking him a question that seemed to stump the star.
The host equated the success of Twilight to the potential popularity of Divergent. Then he compared him to the star of that series, Robert Pattinson.
“Are you ready to be the new R-Patz?” Kimmel asked.
Elgort, visibly taken aback, was not able to give a definitive answer.
Instead, the stammered, “I don’t know, you know. I just sort of. You can’t..”
“OK, I think what we can gather is that you are not ready for this,” Kimmel concluded.
