It was 2020, “slap-bang at the start of Covid”, as he puts it. That delightfully goofy promo arrived slap-bang at the start of the Paul Mescal phenomenon, at a moment when 130,000 people started to gather around an Instagram account devoted to the gold chain that his character wore in the TV series Normal People . It has been quite an adventure.
In 2023 he was nominated for an Oscar and a Bafta for Aftersun , a British indie hit anchored by his performance as a suicidal single dad. While other nominees jostled for coverage on chatshows and in trade papers, Mescal cannily let his acting do the talking in the West End revival of A Streetcar Named Desire . His turn as Stanley Kowalski earned a Laurence Olivier Award.
He will also take the role to New York with a staging of Streetcar at the Brooklyn Academy of Music next spring. This year he returned to the Bafta red carpet to compete with Robert Downey jnr and Ryan Gosling in the best-supporting-actor category for his wistful work on All of Us Strangers . Careerwise, he hasn’t put a foot wrong, surely.
[ Gladiator II review: Don’t blame Paul Mescal for this jumbled sequel Opens in new window ] “Oh, I think I have,” Mescal says. “I’ve put certain feet wrong. But I think I have acquired a taste for what I like.
What I like has been my North Star. And I’ve been very lucky that the directors who are making the things I like want to work with me as well. That’s a big part of the choices that I’ve made.
” After .