{"id":145824,"date":"2025-09-15T14:27:10","date_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:27:10","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/145824\/"},"modified":"2025-09-15T14:27:10","modified_gmt":"2025-09-15T14:27:10","slug":"paul-mescal-on-history-of-sound-hamnet-and-playing-paul-mccartney","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/145824\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Mescal on History of Sound, Hamnet, and Playing Paul McCartney"},"content":{"rendered":"<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n<p>\t\t\tI<br \/>\n\t\t have a sneaking suspicion that everybody wants to be in a musical,\u201d says <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/paul-mescal\/\" id=\"auto-tag_paul-mescal\" data-tag=\"paul-mescal\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paul Mescal<\/a> without a hint of irony, reaching into an off-license refrigerator and pulling out a pink G&amp;T in a can. \u201cShould we get a cold one of these?\u201d He grabs two then saunters up to the till for a pack of Marlboro Golds and a cheap plastic lighter. When I move to pay, he boxes me out of the way with a cheerful, \u201cNaaaaaaaahhhh.\u201d He tried to quit smoking recently, he says, went about six weeks, then caved. \u201cOh, I was just out with friends,\u201d he explains of the backslide. \u201cIt\u2019s not insidious. I\u2019m not smoking for insidious reasons.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/R1404_COV_Paul_Mescal_FINAL.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"788\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Vintage tee. Shorts by APC<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIn fact, between the time that Mescal had shown up (promptly) at our appointed meeting spot across from a pub called the Famous Cock (\u201cHa! It\u2019s pretty identifiable, isn\u2019t it?\u201d) and the time an hour or so later when he\u2019d guilelessly announced that everybody \u2014 everybody? \u2014 wants to be in a musical, \u201cinsidious\u201d is the last word one might associate with the man. Walking the path around London\u2019s Highbury Fields with a little spring in his step \u2014 sunglasses on, mullet tousled, Adidas track pants tucked into his white \u200b\u200bathletic socks \u2014 he\u2019d nodded at elderly gentlemen and playfully skirted strollers and passed himself off as the most well-\u00adadjusted of movie stars. \u201cI love babies with very adult names,\u201d he said at one point. \u201cI would love to have a family. I\u2019m not like, \u2018I want them tomorrow,\u2019 but I would love to have kids.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tOther things he loves include, but are certainly not limited to, his \u201clucky\u201d childhood, summer in London, the Islington neighborhood (\u201cThis is where my brother and sister are. I love it here\u201d), drinking in the park, walking around parks, parks in general, sports, musicals, music \u201cwith a context,\u201d Irish music, folk music, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/beatles\/\" id=\"auto-tag_beatles\" data-tag=\"beatles\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">the Beatles<\/a>, playing music, music in general, his dad, his mom, Ridley Scott, Andrew Scott (\u201cIf God was a real person, I think he would be something like an Andrew Scott\u201d), all his other co-stars, the characters played by his co-stars, the characters played by him opposite those co-stars, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/paul-mccartney\/\" id=\"auto-tag_paul-mccartney\" data-tag=\"paul-mccartney\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Paul McCartney<\/a> (\u201cI\u2019ve met him a couple of times. I adore him. I think he changed the world\u201d), and his current job rehearsing to play Paul McCartney in the four Sam Mendes biopics that are slated to be released in 2028: \u201cIt\u2019s a version of a weird 9-to-5, and I thought I would hate that and I actually am loving that. I do like structure a lot. I like a plan. I like rehearsals.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\tEditor\u2019s picks<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAll of which is to say that, on first impression, it\u2019s pretty hard to square Mescal with his so-called oeuvre, a body of work in which emotional devastation is both through line and common denominator. To date, has any actor paralleled Mescal\u2019s uncanny skill for unrequited longing, sidelong glances, and heaving sobs? Has one man ever ugly-cried so gorgeously and across such a pantheon of sad and gorgeous films? Sure, acting is acting and all that. Actors don\u2019t have to share emotions with the characters they portray. But really, have you seen the man onscreen?<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250626_RM_ROLLING_STONE_Shot_10_2578_02.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"682\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tTake his breakout role as Connell Waldron in Normal People, in which he became, overnight, the poster boy of sad boyfriends the world over, his beautiful brooding and misty moping so palpable that even the inanimate objects around him took on a sort of hallowed meaning (the Instagram account devoted to the chain he wore around his neck on the show has 124K followers, among whom, I promise, are people you know). Or his role as a depressed dad in Aftersun, for which he was nominated for an Academy Award for thoroughly breaking the heart of every viewer. Or his turn as an even sadder boyfriend in All of Us Strangers, which \u2014 no, actually, don\u2019t even get me started or I\u2019ll burst into tears right here and now. Even in a blockbuster like Gladiator II \u2014 even then! \u2014 Mescal was not content simply to flash his muscled thighs while spouting bombasticisms about honor and glory and the perfidy of Rome. Nope. He had to make us feel the vulnerability, the inner torment of Lucius Verus Aurelius. Damn him, he had to make us feel.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\tRelated Content<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAnd now, oh God, he\u2019s talking in that friendly, easygoing way about his two new films, The History of Sound (in theaters) and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/tv-movies\/tv-movie-reviews\/hamnet-review-paul-mescal-jessie-buckley-1235420381\/\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Hamnet<\/a> (out Nov. 27), which might jointly be his saddest and most poignant yet, if it were possible to crank the knob up to 11. The former, a historical drama about an ill-fated love affair between two men recording rural folk music before the songs are forever lost to time (double sob), premiered at Cannes to a six-minute standing ovation. The latter, based on a novel by Maggie O\u2019Farrell about the Shakespeare family\u2019s all-encompassing grief over the loss of their young son, is such a weeper that when I attended an early press screening in New York, a kindly security guard made the rounds with a box of Kleenex after the movie ended, doling out tissues to viewers while they gathered up their tote bags and their psyches as the credits rolled. Suffice to say, it makes for a bit of a head-scratcher to now see Mescal laughing at the dachshund and the poodle vigorously humping on the grass (\u201cThey\u2019re having a great time!\u201d) and seeming, himself, to be having a great time while talking pleasantly about the profound brokenness of so many of his characters and his attraction to that brokenness and also how he must, at some level, share it. \u201cI do feel like I understand it,\u201d he says, as the sun dimples merrily through the trees. \u201cAnd that must mean that there\u2019s part of that in me.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWhich is a damn tantalizing thing to say on a summer-evening stroll, and perhaps he might want to dig into that a little?<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tMescal scratches his mullet. He removes the headphones from around his neck and swings them around the cord like a fan. \u201cI don\u2019t see my life as a comedy, you know what I mean? It\u2019s like, I don\u2019t think I\u2019m fucking living in a fucking tragedy, but I think I\u2019m predisposed to \u2026\u201d He trails off. More vigorous swinging of headphones occurs. \u201cI don\u2019t know. I think I just live \u2026\u201d More swinging still. \u201cMaybe if there was a graph, I would live closer to drama than I do comedy?\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHe shuffles over to the other side of the path. He shuffles back. He shuffles away again.<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250626_RM_ROLLING_STONE_2985_01.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"792\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Cutoff jeans by  Polo Ralph Lauren. T shirt by Jerks Vintage<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cYeah, I don\u2019t feel bad,\u201d he says finally. \u201cI think what I would say is it\u2019s very up and down for me. It\u2019s peaks and troughs \u2014 sometimes within the same day. I think it\u2019s been kind of like that in my head since I can remember.\u201d More scratching. More swinging. \u201cThe thing that I find most exhausting about my brain is I don\u2019t get just, like, \u2018Everything\u2019s good.\u2019 It\u2019s either great or it\u2019s bad.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tFROM THE OUTSIDE, it\u2019s easy to see what might be great about being inside the head of Paul Mescal, what with all of the A-list directors clamoring to cast him and the A-list designers clamoring to get his legs in their short-shorts and the adorable videos of him dancing at Glastonbury with his girlfriend, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/t\/gracie-abrams\/\" id=\"auto-tag_gracie-abrams\" data-tag=\"gracie-abrams\" rel=\"nofollow noopener\" target=\"_blank\">Gracie Abrams<\/a>, who made the relationship internet-\u00adofficial with an Instagram post of herself and Mescal lying together all cozy and blissful in the sun. What with all the nominations (Emmy, Oscar) and all the wins (Olivier, BAFTA) and all the critics calling him a \u201cgenerational talent\u201d and \u201cthe next Marlon Brando\u201d and \u201cuntainted by vanity or ego.\u201d What with the fact that everyone who ever mentions him seems to fall all over themselves to gush not just over his acting chops but also about the supreme menschiness of the man himself. \u201cSuch a genuinely wonderful and sweet and considerate and kind person,\u201d effuses Oliver Hermanus, who directed him in The History of Sound, the first project that Mescal also executive-produced. \u201cIt\u2019s actually nauseating to think of nothing unkind to say about Paul. [I just like] knowing that he\u2019s out there.\u201d Plus, Hermanus continues, \u201che has access to a very full range of emotions and ideas, and he\u2019s really willing to explore them, to touch the live wire.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cI would call it soulfulness rather than sadness,\u201d says Andrew Scott, who played opposite Mescal in All of Us Strangers and who, like Hermanus, counts him as a close friend. \u201cI think that\u2019s what people can detect in him. He\u2019s got a really deep, beautiful soul, and so of course he\u2019s going to be attracted to things that have deep, deep soul in them.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cSoulful\u201d is a start when it comes to pinpointing Mescal\u2019s psychological depth, but surely there\u2019s cause to survey the biographical facts as we know them. Mescal, 29, grew up in Maynooth, Ireland, which currently boasts about 17,000 residents and, if Google search serves, is picturesque and placid, an ideal locale for the sort of well-adjusted childhood Mescal maintains he had, LARPing around the glens and dales (\u201cI played with fake swords and fake guns until I was 15 \u2014 a little bit too late\u201d) and perfecting BMX moves with his friend Padge. Mom was a cop. Dad was a teacher who\u2019d dabbled in acting himself, though it wasn\u2019t something father and son much discussed. There wasn\u2019t a lot of money, but there was, apparently, a lot of love (\u201cI know his family, and they\u2019re just really, really beautiful people,\u201d confirms Scott; \u201cThey\u2019re so close, it\u2019s very enviable to be around the Mescals,\u201d corroborates Hermanus). Of course his younger brother and sister adored him. Of course he got good grades. Of course he was good at sports, first hurling and then, later on, Gaelic football. Of course he stayed out of trouble. Of course the one time he didn\u2019t stay out of trouble, talking back at school and landing himself in detention, he regretted it almost immediately (\u201cI felt thrilled at the concept of being in detention. I thought I was badass. And then, when I was in detention, I was like, \u2018This is so fucking boring.\u2019 Never got detention again\u201d).<\/p>\n<p>\u201cI wasn\u2019t in a great spot last year, psychologically. I found it useful to be on my own.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tNaturally, there were adolescent woes, but likely only of the garden-variety. Mescal was somewhat shy and bashful, embarrassed of his big hands and the awkwardness of growing into his powerful body. The first time he tried to kiss a girl, he overshot and ended up bonking into her head \u2014 mortifying, but probably not a psychic wound. When, at 16, he broke his nose bonking someone else\u2019s head in a football warm-up, he pined for the nose he\u2019d once had, not yet knowing that the new crook would one day make him look Roman enough to cavort about an amphi\u00adtheater for the likes of Ridley Scott. This, of course, was beyond imagining.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tStill, Mescal says, \u201cIt got pretty Troy Bolton-y in secondary school\u201d when he was cast as the phantom in his high school\u2019s rendition of Phantom of the Opera and realized that the theater offered the same camaraderie and competitiveness as Gaelic football (\u201cThe audition was like fucking Lord of the Flies\u201d) minus the violent bonking: \u201cI was like, \u2018Oh, this is fully a drug. This is glorious.\u2019\u2009\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAt the Lir National Academy of Dramatic Art in Dublin, surrounded by kids who\u2019d been doing jazz hands since they were toddlers, Mescal maintains that his doggedness got him through. \u201cI didn\u2019t have the ease of talent that I felt other people had, so it had to come from somewhere else,\u201d he says. \u201cOr, no, I suppose I would argue that the talent that I had then is probably no different to the talent that I have now. But I didn\u2019t feel talented. When I\u2019d see actors in my class who had more experience improvising, for example, or doing things that I had no experience in, I started to panic, because I\u2019d spent a lot of my life up until that point being good at Gaelic football and being like, \u2018I know how to be good at this.\u2019 With the acting thing, I loved doing it, but I didn\u2019t know if I was good \u2014 and I felt bad at it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHe considered dropping out until a teacher persuaded him not to. And since he didn\u2019t drop out, he decided that the only option was to \u201cfucking be the best,\u201d which led to a \u201cmonk-like\u201d existence and some serious discipline and self-denial. \u201cThat was something I could access because of sport, I think \u2014 sacrifice,\u201d he says now, settling onto a park bench and lighting one of the Marlboro Golds. \u201cI realized after drama school that that\u2019s not necessarily useful permanently as a creative person. But it was useful for me at that moment in time.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250626_RM_ROLLING_STONE_Shot_06_1151_02.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"682\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAnyway, he\u2019s not sure he wants to rehash all of this. \u201cI\u2019m bored of myself in terms of that side of my life,\u201d he says, not unpleasantly. \u201cI can hear myself going, \u2018Shut up, shut up, shut up, shut up.\u2019\u2009\u201d He takes another drag. For a moment, he\u2019s quiet. But then: \u201cI don\u2019t think I was generally in a great spot psychologically last year, and I found it useful to be on my own for that \u2014 and also for the films themselves. Kind of a happy accident, I suppose. Not that I would chase that anymore,\u201d he says of the melancholy, the sense of unsettledness that characterized the months when he was shooting The History of Sound and Hamnet. \u201cThat has got a sell-by date in terms of being sustainable. I didn\u2019t want it to be there when it was happening, but now that it\u2019s done, I\u2019m glad that I didn\u2019t have to reach for certain things.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHis not needing to reach is part of what makes The History of Sound so haunting. He says that his character loved Josh O\u2019Connor\u2019s character so much that when O\u2019Connor finished filming and left set, Mescal yearned for his presence. When he knew Jessie Buckley \u2014 who plays Shakespeare\u2019s wife, Agnes, in Hamnet \u2014 was filming a hard scene without him, it was all he could do not to rush to the set to comfort her. \u201cI was a crazy person,\u201d he says of those moments. \u201cI just felt like I wanted to be there, but I also was like, \u2018I can\u2019t be there. It would be fucking weird to be there.\u2019\u2009\u201d Instead, he kept to himself, reading poetry, writing, like Shakespeare might have done.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cI think, very much like Shakespeare, Paul expresses parts of him [through his art] that he might not be able to express in real life,\u201d Hamnet director Chlo\u00e9 Zhao tells me. \u201cHe\u2019s creating a container for himself and expressing that and allowing himself to feel that. I would not bring an actor who doesn\u2019t have that to play William Shakespeare.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tIn fact, when Zhao was first approached about adapting the novel \u2014 while driving through the New Mexico desert en route to the 2022 Telluride Film Festival \u2014 she balked. \u201cI said no,\u201d Zhao tells me. \u201cI said, \u2018I just can\u2019t think of anyone that can play Shakespeare, that level of an archetypal force.\u2019 Then I got to Telluride, and I got a call from my team, and they said, \u2018There\u2019s an actor named Paul Mescal who\u2019d like to meet with you.\u2019 I Googled him. I saw his face. I was like, \u2018Oh \u2026 interesting.\u2019\u2009\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\u201cYou know that crazy drunk talk where you\u2019re like, \u2018Let\u2019s do the fucking thing\u2019? We did.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tWhile in Colorado, the two met up for a walk, and Zhao found herself studying Mescal\u2019s profile. \u201cI thought, \u2018This is somebody who can channel something for me,\u2019\u2009\u201d she explains. \u201cWilliam Shakespeare\u2019s work, it\u2019s very violent, it\u2019s very dark, it\u2019s very masculine, for better or worse, so I wanted somebody who is not afraid to go to a place that, in today\u2019s climate, might seem toxic or dark. I needed somebody who\u2019s willing to go there.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAs it turned out, both Mescal and Buckley were only too willing to go wherever Zhao led. The two actors had met on the Greek island of Spetses while filming Maggie Gyllenhaal\u2019s 2021 feature debut, The Lost Daughter, and they began hanging out in New York in 2024, when Buckley was shooting Gyllenhaal\u2019s The Bride! and Mescal was working on The History of Sound. A favorite haunt was a place called Joyface in Alphabet City. \u201cSometimes they\u2019d lock up and let us stay in after, and we\u2019d get to play show tunes on the decks, me and Jessie and Oliver [Hermanus] and Freddie [Hechinger, who co-starred with Mescal in Gladiator II],\u201d says Mescal. \u201cSo we were there, both drunk \u2014 and it was months before we started filming \u2014 and we were both like, \u2018Let\u2019s just go in.\u2019 You know that kind of crazy drunk talk where you\u2019re like, \u2018Let\u2019s fucking do the thing\u2019? And we followed through. It\u2019s fair to say we are nothing if not committed to the bit.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250626_RM_ROLLING_STONE_3030_RM_01.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"819\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Hoodie by Guuci<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cIn every scene, we\u2019d be like, \u2018Let\u2019s just get on the roller coaster and see. Whatever you choose to do, I\u2019m with you,\u2019\u2009\u201d Buckley agrees. \u201cSometimes there\u2019s a connection and a chemistry and a trust that happens between people on set that gives you permission to go somewhere even more unknowable and deeper than you\u2019ve gone before. And I think Paul is always in pursuit to go to the unknowable place in himself. He\u2019s so unusual because he\u2019s such a giant of a man and a human, and there\u2019s so much sensitivity right below the first layer of his skin, which he lets you see.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe preparation for Hamnet involved dream work (he began to see dreams as connective, possibly even predictive, \u201ca manifestation of fear, maybe,\u201d and a link from his subconscious to the character). It involved tapping into a sort of primal masculinity that he usually eschews, doing \u201cpolarity\u201d work with Buckley in which, Zhao says, \u201call she had to do was surrender, and all he had to do was contain.\u201d It involved Jungian exercises to, as Zhao puts it, \u201cdrop into the collective unconscious\u201d so that he was \u201ctruly channeling Shakespeare, not acting out of what we decided he should be.\u201d And it involved opening himself up to a kind of grief he says he\u2019s never personally experienced. \u201cI can\u2019t even contemplate the death of anybody that I love,\u201d he says. \u201cSome people are OK with the concept of death. Some people are zen with it. Truly, I had a conversation with somebody recently, and they spoke so elegantly about their relationship to death, and I fully believe that that is their position \u2014 and mine could not be further away from that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHe also gave up drinking while making the film, though when Zhao suggested that he actually get drunk for a scene in which Shakespeare does so, Mescal agreed. \u201cI hadn\u2019t drank for weeks and then just got absolutely hammered drinking straight fucking bourbon,\u201d he tells me. \u201cFell asleep. I truly don\u2019t remember a lot of that day.\u201d Buckley laughs deeply when I bring it up. \u201cI have some really good, incriminating pictures on my phone, which will never see the light of day,\u201d she says. \u201cAfter we did it, he\u2019s like, \u2018There\u2019s just no way that scene could be done any other way.\u2019 And then he came in the next day, and he was like, \u2018Oh, no, what have I done?\u2019 But he went for it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe scene is a pivotal one in the film, the moment when Agnes Shakespeare grows concerned about Will\u2019s mental health. When I ask Mescal what was happening last year that made him \u201cnot in a great spot, psychologically,\u201d he doesn\u2019t want to go into specifics. \u201cYou become a different person anyway through your twenties,\u201d he demurs. \u201cI just feel like I was innocent in a way that is nice to think of, and kind of sad to feel like I don\u2019t feel innocent like that. Getting what I want has kind of dissolved some of the innocence.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250626_RM_ROLLING_STONE_Shot_04_0594_RM_02.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"737\" width=\"1024\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\t\tShirt and tee by Gucci.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tOr, at the very least, he clarifies, it\u2019s made him scared to lose what he has, protective of that psychological alchemy that he keeps dancing around. \u201cYou do something well, and then that\u2019s the bar,\u201d he continues. \u201cAnd it doesn\u2019t leave a lot of room for perceived failure. The pressure when you step onto set is way scarier now than it would\u2019ve been to me back then, because I didn\u2019t even know what I thought was good.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tAnyway, he says of his melancholy as we make our way back toward the Tube in the dimming evening light, \u201cI was so lucky to be surrounded by people like Oliver and Josh, and Jessie and Chlo\u00e9, who allowed for that to exist, and ultimately took me out of it.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tTHE NEXT EVENING, we meet up again, at a small bar Mescal says he frequented when he was playing Stanley Kowalski in A Streetcar Named Desire at the Almeida Theater, a performance that was hailed as \u201criveting\u201d and \u201celectric\u201d and \u201cferocious.\u201d The waitress knows him well enough to intuit his drink order (something with scotch, but fruity). \u201cThis was my little spot, so don\u2019t blow this up, please,\u201d he says, taking a swig.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe day had been a full one: He\u2019d been up in time to bundle himself into a hired car at 6:45 a.m. for a drive out to the studio where the Beatles cast rehearses. \u201cAverage day is: We get up, we go out to Bobbington \u2014 which is about an hour and a quarter drive \u2014 listening to the Beatles in the car,\u201d he tells me. \u201cThen we go in, and we try to walk, talk, play, think like the Beatles. Then we get in the car, listen to the Beatles, and go home.\u201d In the past, he\u2019s been wary of projects that dragged on, but this one is different: He will be performing live, which means needing to convincingly sound like the most famous living member of, arguably, the most famous and important band in the history of music. Last year, he started learning to play guitar left-handed, which McCartney is and Mescal isn\u2019t. \u201cIt would just be crazy to not play it left-handed, you know?\u201d he says of taking on the challenge. \u201cYou\u2019re like, \u2018Nah. I like [McCartney] a lot, but I don\u2019t love him.\u2019 That would be the messaging if I didn\u2019t play left-handed. And he\u2019s the fucking coolest man on planet Earth, I think.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\u201cDo people just think I\u2019m crying all the time? I\u2019m not! I hate crying. I don\u2019t like It.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tThe challenge also suits the intensity of his personality. \u201cI don\u2019t think I\u2019m chill, generally,\u201d he says, ruffling his mullet. \u201cWhen I\u2019m around people that I love and feel safe, I like being silly \u2014 it\u2019s a feeling that I don\u2019t get a lot, and I like that \u2014 but I think, for the most part, I\u2019m \u2026\u201d He pauses, considering. \u201cMaybe not intense, but slightly obsessive. I\u2019m obsessed with the Beatles at the moment. It\u2019s part of my job, but it\u2019s also the way that my brain is wired. I\u2019m excited about listening to music, writing music, absorbing music, going to shows, all of these things \u2014 they start with an intensity with the job and then kind of become my personality for a bit.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tRecently, Mescal tells me, he\u2019s been reading Ian Leslie\u2019s John &amp; Paul: A Love Story in Songs. \u201cHe reframes this whole relationship for me,\u201d Mescal says. \u201cWe understand it as something that became incredibly antagonistic, which it was for a period, but also it was, to my mind, the greatest creative collaboration that we\u2019ve maybe ever had as human beings \u2014 definitely in modern times. He roots it in a kind of love. It\u2019s so moving, so moving. I was crying so much.\u201d He catches himself and grins. \u201cDo people just think I\u2019m crying all the time?\u201d he says, tucking into a second drink that has seemed to materialize in front of him. \u201cI\u2019m not! I hate crying. I don\u2019t like it. I hate it. I couldn\u2019t tell you the time that I cried before last Sunday, for example.\u201d<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250626_RM_ROLLING_STONE_Shot_07_1430_01.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"766\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Vintage t-shirt. Shorts by APC<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHe declines to go into what made him cry last Sunday: \u201cJust life, but it\u2019s all good though.\u201d And he certainly doesn\u2019t want to talk about his own romantic life. \u201cI don\u2019t know how to answer that,\u201d he says, when I ask if there\u2019s a particular moment or milestone that made him and Abrams decide to take their relationship public. \u201cI actually do have an answer, but everything to do with that is deeply precious to me and I don\u2019t want to.\u2026 This isn\u2019t \u2026 I don\u2019t really \u2026 umm \u2026 I want to protect those things fundamentally.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tInstead, he asks if we can go outside to smoke, which he does while slowly pacing along the edge of the narrow street, wearing a white T-shirt from the Cannes Festival. Look, here\u2019s the thing about the crying: People talk about the emotional weight of the movies he\u2019s in, but isn\u2019t it true that most are actually love stories, and tender ones at that? He wants to \u201cgo in,\u201d of course. He wants to portray characters like \u201cthe men that I love in my life [who] often have this quality of being latently emotional but find the expression of that difficult.\u201d He wants his roles to start important conversations about masculinity and mental health, and he\u2019ll even \u2014 sort of \u2014 talk about his own: \u201cThank fuck for therapy. Thank God we have that language to go to somebody to talk about your feelings who doesn\u2019t have any kind of prior knowledge of who you are.\u201d\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBut Mescal also wants to make clear that all the darkness and brokenness is in service to something so beautiful, something so true to the human condition. How illuminating to be reminded that Shakespeare was a family man, a husband, a father, a son. How beguiling to think of the Beatles as a love story. What is loss but the measure of love? What is longing but a form of care? And \u2014 see \u2014 isn\u2019t that the point? That the deepness is his, and it can be great or it can be bad, but it\u2019s deeply, deeply precious to him \u2014 the mysterious alchemy, the very thing that must be protected. \u201cIt\u2019s very hard to retain any kind of mystery,\u201d he says. \u201cAnd I think out of the art forms, [acting] is the one that\u2019s most critical for that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tBack inside the bar, Mescal orders another round. The small room has begun to fill (\u201cThe finance bros are in,\u201d Mescal says, grinning. \u201cLet\u2019s go, boys!\u201d). A three-piece band has set up along one wall \u2014 a woman playing an upright bass leading a guy on electric guitar and another guy with a small drum kit.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>\t\t\t\t\t\t<img loading=\"lazy\" class=\"c-lazy-image__img lrv-u-background-color-grey-lightest lrv-u-width-100p lrv-u-display-block lrv-u-height-auto\" src=\"https:\/\/www.rollingstone.com\/wp-content\/themes\/vip\/pmc-rollingstone-2022\/assets\/public\/lazyload-fallback.gif\" data-lazy-src=\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-content\/uploads\/2025\/09\/250626_RM_ROLLING_STONE_Shot_03_0539_02.jpg\" alt=\"\" data-lazy- data-lazy- height=\"1024\" width=\"785\" decoding=\"async\"\/><\/p>\n<p>Outfit by Gucci. Watch by Cartier. Vintage Gola sneakers.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cThat\u2019s a Beatles song!\u201d Mescal announces suddenly, four notes into a new number. \u201cDuh-duh-duh-duh,\u201d he sings, his face having gone beatific. \u201cDo you know what\u2019s crazy is, most people here might recognize the song, but they might not know it\u2019s a Beatles song. It\u2019s \u2018And I Love Her\u2019! It\u2019s a Paul-John song! I\u2019ll give you her, and I love herrrrrrrr.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tMescal swivels around, eyes bright on the band. \u201cSee the way they\u2019re finding shit now,\u201d he leans back to tell me, motioning toward the instruments. \u201cThey\u2019re transitioning, and he\u2019s just watching her hands \u2014 see? He\u2019s watching her hands. He\u2019s just figuring out what the chord is.\u201d There\u2019s something rapturous in the nod of Mescal\u2019s head. \u201cI would love to be able to play music like that.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHow many drinks have we had now? Three? Four? The room is heady with the heat and the crowd and the strings and the snare and somehow now we\u2019re talking about Merrily We Roll Along, the Steven Sondheim musical that Richard Linklater is adapting with Mescal in snippets over the next 20 years. \u201cI love Sondheim more than I love musical theater,\u201d Mescal practically sighs. \u201cSondheim, Shakespeare, and the Beatles. Genius!\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tHe fumbles around on his phone. \u201cWhat\u2019s the John Wilkes Booth song?\u201d Finally, he pulls up the soundtrack to Sondheim\u2019s Assassins \u2014 a musical of the very darkest genius \u2014 and we bow our heads over the little speaker, Mescal\u2019s mouth a tiny O of wonder.<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\t\u201cIt takes a lot of men to make a guuuuuuun!\u201d he sings. \u201cHuuuundrrreds! Many men to make a guuuuuun.\u201d<\/p>\n<p class=\"paragraph larva \/\/ lrv-u-line-height-copy  lrv-a-font-body-l   \">\n\tI mean, just listen to that. What a musical, eh? Who wouldn\u2019t want to be in such a one as that? So great, so sad. So full of longing. \u201cIt takes a lot of men to make a guuuuuuun!\u201d Mescal\u2019s voice is deep and tremulous. The joy on his face is exquisite.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p class=\"production-credits-title-text \/\/  production-credits-title-text \/\/ lrv-u-display-inline lrv-u-font-family-basic u-font-size-15 lrv-u-text-transform-uppercase u-font-weight-800 u-letter-spacing-0 u-line-height-16\"> Production Credits<\/p>\n<p class=\"production-credits-markup \/\/ production-credits-markup \/\/ lrv-u-display-inline lrv-u-font-family-body lrv-u-font-size-13 lrv-u-line-height-16 u-letter-spacing-0\"> Production by FARAGO PROJECTS. Styling by FELICITY KAY for WITH FALCON. Grooming by JOSH KNIGHT for A-FRAME AGENCY UK. Motion Portrait DoP SINCLAIR MANDY, Photographic assistance TEDDY PARK and JOSEPH PETINI. Digital Technician: LAURA HECKFORD. Movement Director YAGAMOTO. Video DoP NICK CARTER. Camera Operator STEPHAN KNIGHT. 1st AC TOM WOOD. Gaffer JACK GOULD. Sound Engineer JAVIER CARLES. Video editors RYAN JEFFREY, NICOLE SALMERI. VFX MIA INCANTALUPO. Styling assistance: DANI KLEINMAN. Location THE ROYAL GUNPOWDER MILLS, WALTHAM ABBEY, UK. \u00a0Location Manager ADAM VIPOND. Medic JOEL WHITAKER<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"I have a sneaking suspicion that everybody wants to be in a musical,\u201d says Paul Mescal without a&hellip;\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":145825,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[28],"tags":[49,48,2556,64414,75,33547,341,9998,18323,9999],"class_list":{"0":"post-145824","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-music","8":"tag-ca","9":"tag-canada","10":"tag-chloe-zhao","11":"tag-cover-story","12":"tag-entertainment","13":"tag-gracie-abrams","14":"tag-music","15":"tag-paul-mccartney","16":"tag-paul-mescal","17":"tag-the-beatles"},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145824","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=145824"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/145824\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/145825"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=145824"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=145824"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ca\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=145824"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}