Credit: Far Out / Quinzaine des Réalisateurs
Sat 12 September 2026 3:30, UK
As an actor, it’s often specific lines or facial expressions that prove someone to be a master at their craft, but as Paul Mescal knows, it’s often what you don’t say and the emotions you don’t immediately reveal that often make for an even more compelling performance.
This is something that most of us have appreciated about his acting since his breakthrough in the 2018 romantic drama series Normal People. Across many of his roles, he strikes a perfect balance between what you hear and what you feel, often utilising brevity and carefully considered silences to leave enough room for greater emotional responses from the audience.
In All of Us Strangers, for instance, Mescal’s character, Harry, appears lonely and guarded, almost like he’s harbouring some kind of secret. However, while it would be just as easy for Mescal to have played such an elusive figure in a more sinister way, or make him far less likeable, he addresses this by doing what he does best and making him appear friendly, troubled, and not at all like he has any sort of bad intentions.
It’s a tough balance to strike, and one that he often detects in other actors, particularly the heavyweights who have long mastered the art of bringing to life the plethora of emotional complexity on screen. In fact, whenever he immerses himself in new worlds, it’s one of the first things he notices, and the one thing that stays with him long after the credits have rolled.
In his mind, there’s only one ultimate master of such a genius acting technique, and it’s the king of double entendre and nuanced expressions himself, Anthony Hopkins. One of Mescal’s favourite-ever movies, as he once revealed to A.frame, is the 1993 romance drama The Remains of the Day, in which Hopkins plays butler James Stevens, who sets aside his feelings for a housekeeper because he believes masking is the truest form of dignity.
Mescal was drawn to this particular performance because it showcases all his capabilities, from navigating tough emotions to displaying inner turmoil on screen.
“I think it’s a study in a particular repression that is reserved for men,” he said, “There’s just something so deeply sad and frustrating about watching Anthony Hopkins’ character trying to navigate expressing his feelings. It’s such a masterful performance.”
Further reading: Cutting Room Floor
Mescal brings much of the same approach to his own projects. In All of Us Strangers, he knew just how much of a passion project it was for director Andrew Haigh, but allowed his personal thoughts to bleed into the character, particularly how he had to effectively ‘suppress’ the darkness he carried deep down and still appear lively and energetic on the surface.
Just like Hopkins’ character in The Remains of the Day, Mescal was faced with “using this kind of forward pressure to hide what’s going on beneath the surface,” as he explained to Vogue, which was a little out of his comfort zone, but which ultimately came with a certain unease that wound up serving the character and the story perfectly.
