Gladiator II star Paul Mescal is unpacking some of his previous comments about audiences’ parasocial relationship toward him. “It’s just a weird thing because ultimately I don’t know you, you don’t know me, but we know a lot about each other because we’re visible the whole time,” the Academy Award nominee said recently on an appearance of Sean Evans’ popular Hot Ones interview , “and I think audiences sometimes misconstrue the characters that I play versus who I am.” Mescal, whose leading role in the limited series Normal People catapulted him into the limelight alongside screen partner Daisy Edgar-Jones , said he is unwilling to bend to public pressure or conceptions when it comes to his film career.
“I mean this with the greatest sincerity and kindness, but I don’t really care what people want me to do because I think the minute you start catering to an audience you’re ultimately beginning to do them a disservice,” he explained. “Because I’ve never considered it before and if it’s working at the moment, which I hopefully feel like it is, then I want to keep doing that until it starts going downhill.” The actor previously addressed an “appetite from the world” on part of his personal life in a cover story with Harper’s Bazaar last year.
“The stuff that hurts is the personal stuff. It’s nobody else’s business and should never be commented on because it’s indecent. And it’s unkind,” he said at the time, potentially referenc.
