The internet’s favorite brooding young man would rather be misunderstood than overshare.
It begins when the Irish actor talks about his experiences of dissociation while filming.
He name-checks Majical Cloudz and Stephen Sondheim.
If something is good to me, its the most played.
Same goes for film.
Its difficult to extract much more personal information over an hour with the preternaturally polite, good-natured 26-year-old.
Mescals interest in repressed men comes partially from personal experience.
Im lucky to not be from my parents generation, he says.
I went to drama school and talked about my feelings for three years, and I went to therapy.
But Im also born of something which is not that.
The artist doesnt have to do any work.
ButAftersunproducer Barry Jenkins says theres no ironic distance or face glitter in Mescals work.
Coming off ofNormal People, he could have gone and been the next young Hollywood male heartthrob.
But hes inAftersunwearing 80s dad jeans and cheesy T-shirts.
I dont think either of the films that Paul is in are like this cool kid genre.
Theyre very earnest characters.
All praise to him for going against the grain of whats cool in neon lights.
But nothing fuels a crush like silence, and the lust for Mescal his gold chain!
only grew after he went dark.
The payoff isnt very good.
There is access to you 24/7, all the time, he says of social media.
I will never be in the photos.
He appears inBridgers music videosandjoined her on the Coachella stageto scream-sing I Know the End.
This is all material for a new internet fantasy starring Mescal: the first boyfriend of indie rock.
The kind of modern feminist man who isnt threatened by being on thesidelines, supporting his girlfriend.
But talking to Mescal about his relationship, he does not make it sound grand or symbolic or subversive.
I really, really enjoy being around her and her band and her friends.
Its also great to get to see a country that Im not familiar with, he says.
I really like the Pacific Northwest.
Love that neck of the woods, like Portland.
I feel like Im a pretty relatively enthusiastic person, so its all been really happy.
Maxine, he adds, is well suited to tour life as well.
Shes excellent on flights.
Shes like a great extension of us, in representing well in every social interaction.
Tellurides a very relaxed festival, so theres nothing isolating you from the festival-goers.
And there were young adults who really loved his portrayal inNormal Peopleand were kind of obsessed, Jenkins recalls.
He was there with his partner, and he was just so sweet about it.
In real life, in other words, Mescal is as available as he hated feeling on social media.
Not at all wanky.
