{"id":223543,"date":"2026-01-02T14:14:08","date_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:14:08","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223543\/"},"modified":"2026-01-02T14:14:08","modified_gmt":"2026-01-02T14:14:08","slug":"paul-mescal-says-he-will-start-rationing-workload-to-avoid-resenting-his-career","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/223543\/","title":{"rendered":"Paul Mescal says he will start rationing workload to avoid resenting his career"},"content":{"rendered":"

Paul Mescal has said he will start rationing his workload to avoid resenting his career.<\/p>\n

The 29-year-old, who shot to fame during the pandemic for his role as love interest Connell Waldron in BBC miniseries Normal People, based on the novel of the same name by Sally Rooney, has since starred in blockbusters such as Ridley Scott\u2019s Gladiator II and booked the role of Paul McCartney in the upcoming biopics by filmmaker Sam Mendes.<\/p>\n

Mescal, who also stars in two upcoming dramas, Hamnet and The History Of Sound, revealed that the growing film credits comes with a cost and that he may need to be more selective with his workload.<\/p>\n

\"PaulPaul Mescal has a busy slate, including the upcoming The History of Sound (Jeff Moore\/PA)<\/p>\n

Speaking to The Guardian, Mescal said: \u201cI\u2019m five or six years into this now, and I feel very lucky. But I\u2019m also learning that I don\u2019t think I can go on doing it as much.\u201d<\/p>\n

When asked if he is rationing himself, he said: \u201cI think so. I\u2019m gonna have to start doing that. For sure.<\/p>\n

\u201cRationing doesn\u2019t necessarily mean less.<\/p>\n

\u201cIt means learning that films like The History Of Sound take more out of the well. You can\u2019t keep going back and expect to consistently deliver something you\u2019re proud of.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mescal plays Lionel in the film which follows his character\u2019s relationship with David (played by Josh O\u2019Connor) after the pair meet in 1917 at the New England Conservatory, and following the First World War, before travelling together to record folk songs in rural Maine in winter 1920.<\/p>\n

\"ThePaul Mescal and Josh O\u2019Connor star in A History Of Sound (Jeff Moore\/PA)<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cWhat that (career) rationing looks like, I don\u2019t know.<\/p>\n

\u201cI miss being on stage, so I might have a time when I\u2019m only doing theatre for a couple of years. I also have different priorities in my personal life that I want to attend to.<\/p>\n

\u201cI don\u2019t want to resent the thing I love. This sounds bold, but I\u2019d rather not be on the train if that is the choice.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mescal, who is promoting Chloe Zhao\u2019s Hamnet, about William Shakespeare and his wife, Agnes, played by Irish actress Jessie Buckley, as they manage the grief of losing their son, added: \u201cOnce I\u2019ve finished promoting that, I hope nobody gets to see me until 2028 when I\u2019m doing the Beatles.<\/p>\n

\u201cPeople will get a break from me and I\u2019ll get a break from them.\u201d<\/p>\n

\"PaulJessie Buckley and Paul Mescal star in Hamnet (Ian West\/PA)<\/p>\n

Mescal will also make his National Theatre debut in 2027, staring in productions of A Whistle In The Dark and Death Of A Salesman.<\/p>\n

It comes after he won an Olivier Award in 2023 for a stage adaptation of A Streetcar Named Desire, before starring in Gladiator II as an arena fighter who tries to bring down two maniacal emperors.<\/p>\n

He added: \u201cI loved the process of making that film but The History of Sound felt like home to me. It\u2019s where I\u2019m most comfortable. I want to make more films like that versus ones on the scale of Gladiator II.\u201d<\/p>\n

Directed by Oliver Hermanus, The History Of Sound will be released in cinemas on January 23rd.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Paul Mescal has said he will start rationing his workload to avoid resenting his career. The 29-year-old, who…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":223544,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[321,93,61,60],"class_list":["post-223543","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-celebrities","tag-celebrities","tag-entertainment","tag-ie","tag-ireland"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223543","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=223543"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/223543\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/223544"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=223543"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=223543"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/ie\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=223543"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}