The controversies that cast a shadow over Ansel Elgort's career

Ansel Elgort (New York, 1994) is one of those actors who seemed to have it all. He was destined to become an artist because it runs in the family. Yes, his Parents are both in the game. His parents are photographer Arthur Elgort and playwright Grethe Barrett Holby.

He started working back in 2013, however, personal controversy kept him away from various big screen projects. Although, in 2023 he returned to the limelight with the premiere of the second season of the series 'Tokyo Vice', where he is also a co-producer.

We take a look back at his career and life to see how Ansel Elgort got to where he is now.

At the age of twelve he began taking acting classes and started appearing in different Broadway plays. But it wasn't until 2013 that he made his film debut with his role as Tommy Ross in the latest film adaptation of the horror film 'Carrie', based on the Stephen King book of the same name.

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And just a year later, in 2014, he got his big break as Augustus Waters in another film adaptation, the film  'The Fault in Our Stars' (2014), based on the novel by John Green.

It was a box-office success, grossing over $300 million, almost thirty times its initial budget.

This brought Ansel Elgort critical and audience acclaim. He won Best New Actor in a Motion Picture at the NewNowNext Awards, Best Actor in a Motion Picture Drama and Breakthrough Actor at the Teen Choice Awards and Favourite Actor at the Young Hollywood Awards.

That was just the start, as he also played Caleb Prior in the films 'Divergent' (2014), 'Insurgent' (2015) and 'Allegiant' (2016), which made him a star among teenage audiences.

And let's not forget that he also starred in the action film 'Baby Driver' (2017), where his performance earned him a Golden Globe nomination.

So much so that Spielberg himself set his sights on him and he starred in the 2021 remake of 'West Side Story', which, unlike his other films, was a box office failure.

However some were quick to link the lack of cinema attendance with the actor's 2020 controversy. What happened?

In June 2020, a woman accused the actor on social media of having abused her in 2014. At the time she was 17 and he was 20.

The young woman said on Twitter that she was excited to meet the actor, as she admired his work. However, according to her account, Elgort allegedly forced her to do things she did not agree with, causing her a trauma that she has carried with her ever since.

"When it happened instead of asking me if I wanted to stop having S,* knowing it was my first time and I was sobbing in pain and I didn't want to do it the only words that came out of his mouth were ‘we need to break you in,'" said the young woman, named Gabby.

This revelation triggered a wave of accusations from other women, who publicly denounced similar cases involving the actor.

The actor denied those allegations of abuse, but did admit that he had been in a consensual relationship: "I cannot claim to understand Gabby’s feelings but her description of events is simply not what happened. I have never and would never assault anyone. When I was 20, Gabby and I had a brief, legal and entirely consensual relationship," he wrote in an Instagram post that he later deleted.

Elgort disappeared from social media for a year, and in one way or another the controversy took its toll on him professionally.

He didn't return to film, however we did see him in 2022 in the first season of the series 'Tokyo Vice', based on the memoirs of American journalist Jake Adelstein (played by Ansel Elgort), who closely investigates the shady dealings of the Tokyo mafia.

As well as being an actor, he is also a DJ, under the name Ansølo, and has released a number of singles, as well as working with other well-known artists.

On a personal note, in 2022, his break-up with Violetta Komyshan, his girlfriend, whom he had met in high school, was made public. In the same year he was also spotted with another woman on holiday in Italy...

There have been shadows and bright spots for this actor whose career has been affected by his private life. His career began with such promise but stumbled under the spotlight of controversy and only time will tell if he can leave the shadow and return to the bright lights of Hollywood.

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