Stage fright made my whole body start to vibrate!
As America swoons and Hollywood beckons, how Normal People’s chiseled star admitted...
HIS compelling portrayal of a young man in an intense, awkward relationship is setting the screen alight in Normal People. And while Paul Mescal’s mesmerising talent looks set to propel him to the highest peaks of the acting profession, his brooding presence and frequent sex scenes in character as Connell Waldron are giving admirers an altogether more primal reason to tune in to the BBC’s latest hit drama.
Yet the 24-year-old heart-throb has revealed that he had to overcome crippling stage fright before he was able to follow the career which is now making his name.
Even the prospect of performing in front of a small handful of people as an amateur singer in his teenage years would have him convulsing in anxiety.
‘I had this affliction, whenever I’d get nervous, that I would stand really straight and sort of lock my knees,’ the Irishman revealed. ‘But because the shake seemed to be coming from my knees… my whole body would start to vibrate.
‘That would stop when I’d sing in front of three or four people after a time and I thought I had got over it. Unfortunately, I got a rude awakening when I went out on stage in front of 600, 700 people and it came back with a vengeance.’
That was the size of audience he had to face in his first acting role – taking the lead in his secondary school production of The Phantom Of The Opera eight years ago.
It wasn’t top of his list of priorities. He was more interested in Gaelic football, playing for the under-21s at county level, but auditioning was compulsory for all students at Maynooth school in County Kildare.
‘I have to give a massive shout-out to my secondary school,’ Paul said of that pivotal moment. ‘They have a policy where you have to audition for the annual play. It’s a big event in the school calendar. They bring in tiered seating and the school hall becomes a theatre of 600, 700 people. And they had big production values – they’d build a stage, bring in professional lighting and sound designers.’
DESPITE his reluctance to face the crowds, he was quickly bitten by the acting bug. ‘It is a very sexy thing at 16 to be able to express the things that these characters are feeling,’ he told the Irishman Abroad podcast. ‘Getting to do that on stage I found incredibly intoxicating and then, coming out and bowing at the end and hearing a roar from the people in your community like they are at a Rolling Stones concert… I remember coming home and [thinking] I adored that.’
While he ‘fell in love with the immediate adrenaline rush’ of acting, he remained unsure of his future and it took an intense counselling session to put him on the path he would finally follow.
As his last days in school approached, he considered signing up for a conventional university degree, but realised that ‘just doing something for the sake of it academically’ would have made him ‘incredibly unhappy’.
Describing his ‘gearshift moment’, he explained: ‘I met a [careers] guidance counsellor, who was actually a friend of my mum’s, because I was having a bit of a panic attack about what I was going to do.
‘She came into the house and just asked me a series of very basic questions about what I liked doing at school. The more we delved into it, it was English and Shakespeare and prescribed texts.’
When he told the counsellor that his main hobby was playing football, she jumped to the conclusion: ‘Oh, you clearly like being on stage.’
Paul admitted: ‘It took somebody else to articulate that for me to then go, “Oh yeah,
that’s the first thing I can really see myself being happy studying.”’
He studied at the Lir Academy drama school in Dublin, and three years ago he was cast as the lead in a stage production of The Great Gatsby. Several other theatre jobs followed, although Normal People is his first TV role.
The 12-part drama, based on Sally Rooney’s bestselling novel about the turbulent relationship between working-class Connell and well-heeled Marianne Sheridan, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, has been praised for its unflinching take on sexuality. It is set to make Paul a star both sides of the Atlantic, as it is also being carried on the American streaming service Hulu. Social media is humming with positive comments about his acting and looks, with some fans tipping him as a future James Bond.
Such is the success of the show that a cheap Argos chain Connell wears around his neck has acquired its own Instagram page – with 60,000 followers
It’s all come as quite a shock his family. ‘Two weeks ago, nobody knew who Paul was and now he is global,’ his teacher father, also called Paul, told The Mail on Sunday.
Describing his son – who is thought to be single at the moment – as ‘squeaky clean’ and a ‘really honest, hard-working guy’, he added: ‘I think what is lovely has been the reaction from the people of Maynooth. They have been so warm and welcoming and they have been able to claim him for their own, which is great.’
Acting’s gain may have been sport’s loss. Aidan Minnock, chairman of Maynooth’s Gaelic Athletic Association, recalled: ‘He stood out from the start. When it came to training, his attitude was exemplary and there were a lot of excellent coaches involved and he was like a sponge, he wanted to learn and he did. I presume he brought that to his acting as well.
‘Off the pitch he was a real people person, a very down-to-earth guy with a downto-earth family.’
The Mail on Sunday last week told how Paul fibbed to his drama school tutors after fracturing his jaw while playing football. He had broken a strict ban on taking part in contact sport, so instead claimed he had been attacked while working in a petrol station.
Paul admits to liking the structure sport brought to his life, saying: ‘I was a defender and I wasn’t the most skilful of footballers, so I knew that for me to succeed it would require me to be maybe fitter than other people or develop a mental toughness.
‘I was quite strict with myself and I enjoy, not punishment, but working really hard, because it eliminates doubt when you get to that point of performance when you’re on a stage or on a field.
‘I think for me that’s the only time I can feel free in anything. The fact that I wasn’t the most skilful footballer has informed the way I prepare in terms of acting.’
Last month, Paul was signed up by top Hollywood agency CAA, whose roster also includes George Clooney, Jennifer Aniston, Robert De Niro and Tom Hanks.
However, a female friend from Lir Academy doesn’t believe stardom will go to his head. ‘Paul is one of those guys you love hanging out with. He is funny, witty, strong and a great listener, just a really downto-earth guy.’