The nine acting performances Paul Mescal thinks everyone should see: “Really inspiring”
Not many young actors have had the kind of five years Paul Mescal has, going from BBC dramas to being Russell Crowe’s successor in Gladiator, but once Hollywood decides you’re ‘it’ there’s not much you can do other than hang on tight and make the most of it, which Mescal has undeniably done.
If he were just ridiculously handsome or had a famous parent, that would be one thing, but Mescal has shown he has the acting chops to back up his spectacular ascent from Dublin theatres to half-billion dollar movies with a Laurence Olivier award on his mantelpiece, plus a couple of BAFTAs and a casual Oscar nomination to go with them.
There’s not likely to be much of a break from Mescal scooping up gongs either, with his latest film, Hamnet, gathering all kinds of rave reviews. The Shakespearean drama with a twist, being that it is adapted from a novel that fictitiously imagines his family life, is attracting considerable attention and is likely to be in the running when Oscar season rolls around again in March.
That’s aside from his casting as Paul McCartney in the ambitious Sam Mendes Beatles quadruple due out in 2028. So, where does Mescal find his inspiration as an actor? Who are his heroes? Well, luckily, he has divulged that information when asked by Backstage, which performances every actor should see at some point. He replied:
“You think of Michael Shannon in Take Shelter, Marlon Brando in On The Waterfront, Al Pacino in The Godfather. Michelle Williams in Manchester by the Sea. Ryan Gosling and Michelle Williams in Blue Valentine. Adam Driver and Scarlett Johansson in Marriage Story. Timothée Chalamet in Call Me By Your Name. It’s also amazing to see a film like Little Women, people who are my peers in terms of age and delivering on that scale consistently is really inspiring.”
Now, before you go racing off to check out any of those films that you might not have seen yet, it is worth qualifying Mescal’s picks by saying that at least three of those are unbelievably depressing movies, namely Manchester by the Sea, which is about as bleak a couple of hours as you’re ever likely to spend, and secondly Marriage Story, which is basically a divorce played out in real time. Plus, Blue Valentine is about a couple breaking up.
But certainly Michelle Williams, who Mescal mentioned twice in that round-up is an important inspiration for the actor; in fact he has called her the “gold standard” and when he was nominated for an Oscar thanks to 2023’s Aftersun he professed to being nervous at the prospect of meeting the Brokeback Mountain star, saying: “I’m, like, a crazy Michelle Williams fan, so that’s gonna be — I feel like I would find it difficult to even talk to Michelle Williams, so that’s a big one.” He has also said he would like to kiss Ryan Gosling in the rain, but presumably that’s because he likes The Notebook.
The only actor Mescal mentioned that he has managed to work with so far is Adam Driver on Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, but he has also expressed a desire to work with Michael Shannon, so that might be worth keeping an eye on. As for his love of Al Pacino, Mescal has also said one of the roles he would most love to play is the lead in Dog Day Afternoon, the 1975 Sidney Lumet masterpiece in which Pacino played a desperate bank robber with hostages and the attention of millions watching on TV.
Aside from preparing to be a Beatle, Mescal will also appear in the new Richard Linklater film, Merrily we Roll Along, about a New York composer.
