Ansel Elgort - From Nutcracker to 'Baby Driver'

After a month of showers, June has brought us a significant amount of sun and ice cream, but more importantly a ton of new releases. Whether it be in music, TV shows, books, or movies, the summer has no shortage of creative pieces waiting to be seen by the world. This month in particular is seeing the release of a new film called Baby Driver, which will officially be in theaters on the 28th. The movie follows a talented getaway driver who uses music to block out all distractions, allowing him to succeed immensely. Upon meeting a woman named Deborah, he decides to separate himself from this shady lifestyle but it proves to be harder than he thinks. The film star’s Ansel Elgort, who rose to fame from his role as Augustus Waters in The Fault in Our Stars back in June of 2014. Along with this role, he has been in several other movies, such as Divergent, Insurgent and Allegiant, all while working on new music. One of his more recent songs, Thief, has racked up over 7 million views on Youtube already. With such success at the mere age of 23, his journey to where he is now demands to be looked at.

Ansel first realized he was meant for acting at 9 years old, during his performance in Nutcracker at the Lincoln Center. Performing, or even speaking in front of 3,000 people would send most kids his age and even adults into a fit of panic. He was different however, because not only did he take it in stride, but he relished in it. This led to his first acting role as Tommy in the film Carrie, which came out in 2013. The process of getting the role was not without its hardships, as shown by the seven auditions Ansel said he had to go through prior to officially getting casted. Either way, the fact that he landed the role and went on to do bigger and better things could be partially attributed to his father.

Arthur Elgort, a renowned fashion photographer for Vogue, got started in the field of photography when his black and white pictures of a woman playing with a dog were featured in the British version of the magazine. He was originally trained to be a painter, but he preferred human company, which appears to have transcended into his children’s careers. This is especially true in the case of Ansel, who after the Lincoln Center performance, announced to his dad that everybody was looking at him. This was not the case, as people were just watching the stage, but Arthur saw this as a telling factor of where his son would eventually be career-wise (as well as hilarious). It’s clear that this confidence rubbed off on Ansel, as his favorite quote happened to be one of his father’s: “‘Do what you love in life; that’s the most important thing. If you just do what you love and work really hard, you will be happy, and everything else will figure itself out.”

As for his current role in Baby Driver, Ansel could not be more excited to work alongside talents such as Jon Bernthal, Jamie Foxx, and Jon Hamm. He appears to be genuinely surprised to be casted among such well-known and older actors, but Edgar Wright, the director and writer of the movie, had no doubts. The fact that Ansel is very musical, coupled with his dancing and DJ experience, seemed to be a no-brainer casting decision for him. Wright also seemed focused on having a youthful actor playing the role, which he clarifies in saying, “You want to feel like the character is very young, it’s the point of the movie.”

Whichever way you look, Ansel Elgort is well on his way to succeeding in singing, acting, and dancing. His career has begun with a promising start, and given his young age, will only flourish in the next few years. Baby Driver is just another hook in his belt, which is quickly filling up with incredible experiences.