Jordan Elsass On Toxic Masculinity and Trip’s Romance With Pearl in ‘Little Fires Everywhere’

Because Hulu’s adaptation of Little Fires Everywhere is so different than Celeste Ng’s novel, the cast is afforded the opportunity to delve deeper into their characters. That was certainly the case for Jordan Elsass who plays Trip Richardson, the golden boy, jock son who finds himself in a relationship with Pearl Warren.

In the original novel, Trip isn’t as fully fleshed out as he is in the limited series. Instead of Trip being a typical popular kid in high school, we see him fall in love for the first time and Elsass is really responsible for the audience seeing his heart grow when he’s with Pearl. Watch how he watches Lexi Underwood’s Peal talk when they are alone together. When Moody and Trip fight over that growing relationship, we can also see that Trip isn’t doing it to spite his brother.

Trip Richardson could’ve been a standard jerk who teases his other siblings, but your first love can change you.

Awards Daily: Did you read the novel?

Jordan Elsass: I did read the book, but I did after we wrapped.

AD: Oh, that’s cool.

JE: I read it about three or four weeks after we finished.

AD: Because it is, to me, very different, so I’m curious as to what the actors think of the changes.

JE: Yeah, it is very in your face. It’s more focused on the dramatic things—which I like. Since it is television, I think they made a good call.

AD: Did you have to or want to do any research on the mid-90’s? It may sound silly, but I was curious if you looked into the time because things are definitely different.

JE: Yeah, I had to wear a pager. Me and Jade [Pettyjohn] definitely did, and I had no idea what it was (laughs). Jade didn’t either, and she’s the smartest 18 year old. What I did was ask questions from Miss Reese and Miss Kerry and the producers and writers just to educate us. There were some show that we didn’t know what it was. I did a lot of research on the music. I was listening to a lot of what I thought Trip would listen to, so I listened to a lot of Nirvana, Blink-182, Stone Temple Pilots. Some rock music, and that was the extent of the research I did on my own. In terms of style, I would talk to the wardrobe people as to what Trip would wear versus what Moody would wear.

AD: That’s smart.

JE: I wanted the clear distinction. Trip’s mommy doesn’t dress him, and I wanted to make it look like he was buying his own clothes—even if he wasn’t paying for his own clothes. I don’t have those sideburns, either. I shaved those as soon as we were done.

AD: I’m pretty sure I had those sideburns, so that was kind of a rude awakening. I wonder if people underestimate Trip a little bit. He is the epitome of an all American guy, and that is quite literally the polar opposite of Izzy. You’re the oldest, she’s the youngest. You’ve outgoing, she’s very introverted.

JE: Yeah.

AD: You don’t have a lot of screen time together, and there’s a small scene with you two where you bring her pizza and it ends in disaster. Can you talk to me about their relationship?

JE: Absolutely. It’s interesting because you don’t see them communicating or their dynamic. The reason you don’t see it is because, I think, they don’t interact a lot. They know where they stand within the family. Trip knows he’s the golden boy and he will always be more popular than Izzy at school but more popular at home. Even how his dad views him as the winner of the family. Him and Lexie in their parents’ eyes are going to be the most successful and do something big. Maybe Trip will do something with major league sports. Lexie will go to Yale. Izzy steers clear of Trip and he does the same with her. Since Trip wants everyone to like him and get along with everyone. He tries to break that barrier in that scene, and I say something horrible.

AD: You look at her art and say, ‘dyke central.’

JE: Yes. And he thinks it’s a joke, and it’s a mistake. She then snaps back and says that all of Trip’s girls are skanks. Megan [Stott] and I did a few takes where she would say some of the meanest things, and she’s the sweetest person.

AD: In terms of Trip’s relationship with Moody, I wonder how much of Trip’s behavior is intentional. In the party scene Moody says, ‘You couldn’t get a girl like Pearl in a million years.’ Brothers are always competitive with each other, but was he intentionally trying to put Moody down or maintain that dominance?

JE: I think what Moody said crossed his mind when he was hooking up with Pearl, but I don’t think that was his primary motivation. When we fast forward to when Pearl and Trip are doing homework, you have to remember that Pearl actually kisses Trip. Pearl breaks that tension. I don’t think Trip is that insecure. He knows that he’s a player who generally thinks he’s more attractive because he’s older. He doesn’t have to prove anything to Moody. Once Pearl starts going in for it—especially when she asks if he has a condom and they go upstairs—I think Trip may think that Moody was wrong. She’s way smarter than Trip, and he gets in his head. When he’s trying to leave Pearl’s room, he’s nervous because Moody was right. It hurt his feelings at the Halloween party, so he thought Moody was right.

AD: What did this show teach you about privilege and toxic masculinity?

JE: What I’ve seen throughout this theme where the Richardson family with this idea of “doesn’t see color” and that while it’s valid in a way, but we need to listen to other people’s stories. It’s important that we don’t’ judge them in a negative way based on their race or their ethnicity. You can’t generalize either way. Generally, someone else may have a different experience growing up and therefore have a different viewpoint from you. Or different morals. And that’s where this problem comes in. That’s where these blind spots can come in and that’s where privilege comes in. It’s more ignorance than it is racism. Looking at the show, I see blatant racism, but mostly what I saw was ignorance.

AD: Do you think Trip would try to find Pearl?

JE: I think that Trip, if anything, would run off really quickly without any plan or any goals. He’s an impulsive guy, and if he makes that decision with the other kids, he’d take the chance to find her. He’s never once came close to feeling that way—the butterflies in the stomach. We all know how that feeling goes and it’s incredible that you can’t quite describe. Falling in love is amazing, and I think Trip was getting to that point.

Little Fires Everywhere is streaming now on Hulu.