Normal People’s Paul:
He went from an unknown to a household name overnight due to his breakout role in the moody romantic drama Normal People. Here, Paul Mescal talks sex scenes, his bond with co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones, and his dreams for Hollywood
“Another series would be tricky... Unless we were a bit older”
He’s currently one of the nation’s biggest heartthrobs thanks to his steamy performance as Connell Waldron in hit TV show Normal People – making the likes of Killing Eve’s Jodie Comer and Gemma Collins swoon, and prompting Love Island’s Maura Higgins to say, “Paul is so fit – I watched the whole series in a day!”
It’s been BBC Three’s most successful show ever and drew in 6.8m viewers, with even more tuning in on iPlayer. However, the instant fame has been somewhat overwhelming for actor Paul Mescal. He says he’s been dumbfounded by the tidal wave of praise for the Irish drama, revealing that, for him, 2020 has been a rollercoaster of emotions.
GRATEFUL
Paul, 24 – who is currently single – says,
“If you’d have written out on paper, with everything going on globally, that 2020 would personally be a good year for me, I would have laughed at you. The reaction to Normal People has been amazing, but also the world seems like a very strange place at the moment!
“It’s just been the craziest time, in terms of the response to the show and then having to adjust facets of your life to all the positive support. I – and I’m sure everybody else involved – am just so grateful for the reaction.”
The coming-of-age love story – adapted from the novel by Irish author Sally Rooney – was Paul’s first venture into television, having previously made his debut in theatre after graduating from drama school. And the Irishman – who shares striking similarities with Connell, including being a promising Gaelic football player and studying at Trinity College Dublin – says
28
that he was desperate to get the part.
He says, “After I graduated, I did two years of theatre around Ireland and a play in London. The audition for Normal People came through and I’d been aware of the novel, but hadn’t read it. So I read it very quickly before the first audition and it was daunting to read, seeing it in the context of playing Connell.
CHEMISTRY
“There were a lot of boxes ticked with me and Connell – I felt like I fit the bill in terms of his background, the textures of him, and so it was just a matter of trying to go in and do it justice, when I was sitting in front of the casting directors… When I got the call, I screamed, roared, cried, rang my parents, and then had to go back into rehearsals for a play I was doing. It was pretty cool.”
Viewers fell in love with brooding Connell on the show, with Paul – who shares a flat in London with 23-year-old co-star India Mullen, who played Peggy – being inundated with requests for dates on social media and amassing a whopping 900K Instagram followers.
Viewers were also drawn to his on-screen chemistry with co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones, who plays Marianne Sheridan. The pair have since delighted fans by revealing their closeness in real life, with Daisy, 22, saying,
“We’re very silly together. Our friendship is a wonderful thing and something I’ll really treasure forever. I feel so lucky to have met Paul.”
And he reveals how the two leads hit it off from the moment they met. He says,
“We did ‘chemistry’ reads – and everybody who came in could have played a version of Marianne. But with Daisy, it felt instinctive – it felt like there was just less acting going on in the audition, in terms of where we both came at it together. The lines kind of seemed to be the characters talking to each other rather than us trying to force the lines in any way.
“I think Daisy felt the same, in terms of an instinctive fact that we would just get on with each other, that we worked very similarly. I think we’re both very generous with each other when we’re on camera.”
And of their infamous risqué sex scenes, Paul says, “Me and Daisy would have to have had a really strong trust in each other and that really helped… We’d have a full day of sex scenes while shooting, and I think that was the best way to do it, because you’d just be looking at that day on the call sheet being like, ‘Oh, we’re doing those scenes that day!’
EMPOWERED
“But weirdly, both me and Daisy felt totally empowered doing them, because it’s just such an important narrative thrust in the book. It’s integral to both the characters’ emotional and sexual development throughout the series.”
After the groundbreaking success of both the drama and his stand-out performance, Paul has reportedly been in demand for a second series of the show, as well as rumours swirling about bigger projects overseas.
He would also love to make a move into Hollywood, cryptically adding,
“I kind of half know, although I’m definitely not allowed to say, but hopefully at the end of the summer I’ll be going and working with people that I absolutely adore and have adored for quite a number of years. I’ll be really excited if that manages to happen.
“[In terms of a second series] I think the truthful answer is no – there’s no talk as it stands. But I’d love to play Connell again.
It’s tricky – I think sometimes the mistake has been made where you rush back into something because an audience has liked it… I would probably wait for [Marianne and Connell] to enter another phase in their life, get a little bit older and figure out what they mean to each other.
“I personally think you have to let them get a bit older before you jump back into another series.”
‘With Daisy, it felt instinctive’