Paul Mescal’s career may be new and fresh, but the Irish Oscar nominee has flown onto our screens and become a familiar face, becoming one of the current best up and coming actors of the modern day. With seven awards wins in only a matter of years, how exactly did he get there?
At 16, Mescal performed on stage, playing ‘Phantom’ in a school production of The Phantom of The Opera. It is clear to say that from the start, Mescal had to become a talent at playing complicated and diverse men, which is what flew him into unpredictable stardom after only a matter of years. Despite having a love for Gaelic football until his late teen years (and to this day, where he still helps coach his hometown, Maynooth’s, local club). Mescal chose a slightly different path, pursuing his love of acting and theatre. This being partially due to his footballing career being cut short, due to injury.
In 2017, Mescal graduated from Lir Academy, at Trinity College. He graduated from the Dublin acting academy with a Bachelor of Arts Degree. From here-on, his career began to get moving. Mescal secured several acting gigs following his graduation, with a few of his notable early-years theatre performances including A Midsummer Nights Dream at the Kilkenny Arts Festival, The Red Shoes (playing the Prince) and The Great Gatsby, performing as male lead Jay Gatsby in his first ‘big’ performance, at the Gate Theatre in Dublin.
The County Kildare born actor followed on to eventually made his London debut, appearing in The Plough and The Stars, which he in performed at the Lyric Hammersmith Theatre.
2020 was the year that ensured that Mescal would undoubtedly become a household name, as he made his first television appearance, which turned out to be his breakout role.
Normal People premiered on BBC Three and Hulu (in the US) mid-pandemic amid the first Covid-19 lockdown. Whilst Sally Rooney’s 2018 Irish novel had already rendered a large fanbase, with many speculating the release of the BBC adaptation, the audience reach of Normal People was unpredictable. Watchers spread from Ireland, to England, to internationally.
Paul Mescal played troubled, tender, and emotionally unavailable teen, Connell Waldron, alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones (Where the Crawdads Sing), playing Marianne Sheridan. Normal People tells the story of, well, two very ‘normal people’, weaving in and out of each other’s lives, intertwined with the intensity of first love and new experiences. Normal People is a beautifully bittersweet love story, heart-wrenching in the very best way. And just like that, Mescal and Edgar-Jones were thrown into the limelight.
Normal People, to put it simply, is something that you will watch and continue to think about for days afterward. One of its finest qualities it its ability to make you feel so much, through silence and thought. With Mescal at the heart of the show, it is safe to say that his portrayal of Connell is truly phenomenal. Normal People may feel ‘slow moving’ at times but being able to combine pace and emotional vulnerability in this case, places Sally Rooney’s adaptation at an all time high, marking its place in the hall of fame as one of the BBC’s best produced television shows.
The release of the romance-drama series was only the beginning, as shortly after, Mescal secured a British Academy Television Award (BAFTA) for his performance of Connell, where he received the award at the BBC Television Centre in London. Following Normal People, Mescal starred in several television shows and films. These including Channel 5’s thriller series, The Deceived (2020) where he played a firefighter, in addition to making his feature film debut in psychological drama, The Lost Daughter (2021), alongside director Maggie Gyllenhaal who also made her directorial debut with the film.
In 2022 Mescal made his return to theatre, landing the lead role of Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’ A Streetcar Named Desire. While Marlon Brando’s previous 1947 broadway and 1952 film performances of Kowalski are definitely a tough act to beat, reviews claim that Mescal has excelled in his role. Performances began at the Almeida Theatre on December 10, running until February 4 2023. Tickets sold out instantly for both the general performances and those allocated as a part of the ‘Almeida for Free’ scheme, as one of the most sought-after productions of the year.
Streetcar, along with Paul Mescal, Anjana Vasan and Patsy Ferran, will be moving toward the West End in the spring, to Phoenix Theatre from 20 March to 29 April. Tickets were made available for the performance on 1 February, and sold out within a record-breaking two hours, making it the fastest selling performance at any ATG venue (Ambassador Theatre Group.) Mescal’s performance has been praised highly amongst critics, and it is clear that the demand for the performance is sky-high.
So how exactly did Paul Mescal make the leap from the stage, to becoming an Oscar nominee?
Aftersun (2022) is a telling of a troubled young father, and his developing relationship with his daughter (Frankie Corio). It was Mescal’s performance of the father, Calum, that landed him in the position of being an academy award nominee. Aftersun premiered at Cannes film festival in 2022, and was shown again later at London Film Festival in October. Directed by Charlotte Wells, it follows Scottish father and daughter, Calum and Sophie, on a summer holiday in Turkey. Mescal plays yet another complex and meaningful male character, as father Calum deals with issues of depression, life and finance, and the overall looming need to be a good father, whilst also dealing with himself and remaining a put-together false image for his daughter.
As a product of this, Mescal has received a well-deserved Oscar nomination for Best Male Actor at the 95th Academy Awards. The awards will take place on March 12th this year, where Mescal will come alongside many reputable and phenomenal actors, with his fellow nominees being: Austin Butler (Elvis), Colin Farrell (The Banshees of Inisherin), Brendan Fraser (The Whale), and Bill Nighy (Living). Mescal’s nomination is not just a win for himself, it is a win for an entire country. This year’s awards have ranked up 14 Ireland-based nominations.
Paul Mescal, now an academy award nominee, already has a busy and fruitful career ahead of him, and a clear line-up of where exactly he will be impressing viewers next. With one of the most anticipated releases being Foe, an adaptation of Iain Reid’s novel of the same name. The Amazon Original sci fi drama will feature Mescal and Saoirse Ronan (Little Women) playing lovers, Junior and Hen.
Following this, it has also been confirmed that Mescal is starring in Strangers, another novel to film adaptation of the 1987 novel of the same name by Taichi Yamada. Directed by Andrew Haigh, he also wrote the screenplay for the fantasy drama. Mescal will star alongside many familiar faces, such as Andrew Scott (Fleabag, 2016), Claire Foy (The Crown, 2016 ), and Jamie Bell (Billy Elliot, 2000).
However, it is neither Foe, nor Strangers that has viewers and film fans on the edge of their seats. Mescal is set to star at the head of Sir Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel, which is due for release as early as 2024, with production currently pushed back due to Mescal’s agreement to perform in an extended run of ‘A Streetcar Named Desire.’ While not much has been said regarding content, the sequel is not expected to be a ‘direct’ sequel of the original 2000’s modern classic. He is set to play Lucius, the son of Maximus’s (played by Russell Crowe) former partner, who was previously seen in Gladiator.
His commitment to his craft is admirable, and it is clear that he values the art of performance. There is no doubt that this has been a key factor of how, in a matter of only 3 years, he has been quite so successful in forging his career. It is a rarity for an actor to be quite as successful as Paul Mescal has been so far, from high-school plays, to his coming-of-age tv breakout role, an Oscar nomination, and now to follow in the footsteps of none other than Russell Crowe, it is clear to say that he has a successful road ahead.
It is not something we see often, but have seen in the likes of several younger performers in the industry, such as Timothee Chalamet, being one of the most popular to recently step into the light. Artists like Mescal seem to make the creative decision to step away from the ‘mainstream,’ and choose what they are going to perform in based on passion, thought, and personal strengths.
Words by Mia Stapleton
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