A version of this story about Oscar nominee Paul Mescal and “Aftersun” first appeared in the Even the cable problem from TheWrap Awards Magazine.
Irish actor Paul Mescal turned 27 the week after his first Oscar nomination for playing a hurt young father who tries his best on vacation in Turkey with his wise-cracking daughter (Frankie Corio) in the film from writer-director Charlotte Wells. semi-autobiographical “After the Sun.” That makes him the youngest actor to be nominated this year. The film also catapulted his already growing reputation as a talent to watch, following his Emmy-nominated breakout role in Hulu’s “Normal People” in 2020. He’s shooting a sequel to “Gladiator” with Ridley Scott soon – could there also be a Tony nomination at some point?
He discussed that and more with TheWrap.
One of the exciting things about his nomination is that “Aftersun” is kind of an anti-Oscary movie. He doesn’t have big emotional clashes and such. Even in your big scene, we don’t see your face.
I’d love to take some credit for that, but I think that’s what Charlotte innately wanted from the film and from the script that Charlotte wrote. I don’t think the movie was manipulative or aggressive in terms of asking the audience to feel things. I think as a result, my job and Frankie’s job was to go in and understand the task at hand. And that was just to get into a quiet movie. The running joke with me and my friends on my team is, like, I have no idea what clip they’re going to use for this. [Laughs.]
I take great pride in the fact that I don’t think it’s a classic Oscar performance, but it’s also a testament, I think, to the acting branch of the Academy that went out and voted for her anyway. If I hadn’t been in it, it’s the kind of movie I would want to see as an actor.
What is it like to be in this category of nominees? It’s a wonderfully diverse age category, and it’s people who do a very inside job. Have you gotten to know the boys?
Have. The pre-nomination campaign, I was doing the play so I wouldn’t run into people, but at the nominees’ luncheon, I bumped into Bill. [Nighy] a couple of times, i met brendan [Fraser] and colin [Farrell] correctly, and I bumped into Austin [Butler]. So I hope that in the coming weeks we will see a lot more of each other. But yes, in terms of the standard of the job, to be within and among them, is a great honor that is not lost on me at all.
You’ve had an amazing year with big projects like “Aftersun,” “God’s Creatures” and an Olivier-nominated turn in “A Streetcar Named Desire” in the West End. Many more projects are coming. You have become a very unclassifiable actor in the most wonderful way. Is it something you are aware of?
I don’t think you’re a particularly patient person, do you? It may seem quick and all-encompassing, but I think at this point I would have a hard time, say, doing a recurring series or something, and for no other reason than my own disposition, which is just that I like to change it up. Things that feel innately different are more interesting to me. But it’s not a roadmap of, like, “We’ve done something small and intimate. So now we need big study moments.” The choices I’m making are predominantly related to the scripts I’m reading.
Speaking of changing it up, we have to ask about the progress of Richard Linklater’s “Merrily We Roll Along,” which will be filmed over 20 years as the characters age. What is it like to work on something? no one will see for long?
We filmed the first segment and we will film the second segment this year at some point. I imagine there will be a curiosity in the middle of being, like, ‘What does everything look like?’ It’s such an interesting process, because we know we’re going to be shooting for 20 years. I imagine it will be very humiliating.
Can you imagine returning to the stage now, at the height of all this attention, as a palate cleanser?
I think it makes me a better actor. I love the structure of my day when I’m working on stage. I mean, there’s nothing really that cleanses the palate about Stanley Kowalski. He is one of the most exhausting characters I’ve ever played. I feel like the palate cleanser will be whatever I do next. [Laughs.] Like I don’t feel like it [Ridley Scott’s sequel to] “Gladiator” is going to be a palate cleanser. But it’s the only way I know of to work. I think this gap was the longest I was offstage. And it seemed too long.
What was it like doing the play amid all the attention you received for “Aftersun”? Because I’ve worked in theater productions and I know what that eight-show-a-week schedule is like. It’s hard to absorb other things into it. Was that a challenge?
I didn’t really have to absorb a lot because if there had been a real expectation that we were going to be firmly in the mix for a nomination, it probably would have made the play more difficult, or it would have been a more difficult conversation because there was no world in which to I was not going to do the work.
There was never a firm expectation that this [nomination] was ever going to go through my performance. It was not particularly planned. I think they were, like, champions in the media and on the news, saying, “We really enjoyed the performance.” And that was enough. I think we were wonderfully out of the bubble and just let it be what it was going to be, and it ended up being this. I am impressed by the fact that it has happened.
Any chance you’ll take your Stanley Kowalski to the Broadway stage?
I would imagine there would be conversations somewhere, but to be honest I don’t know. We’re just focusing on getting it up in London. I mean, if I do a Broadway play, I can quit and be a happy actor.
Read more of the Down to the Wire issue here.
