“We are not losing this job”: The lie that launched Paul Mescal’s career
One difference, and the whole cinematic world could be altered: one word out of place, one missed train, one abandoned connection, change the tiniest thing and a vital audition could have been a failure and a life-changing part missed. In the case of Paul Mescal, it all comes down to one little lie.
By now, Mescal is undeniably and unarguably the biggest name in young Hollywood. Of the new generation, he leads at the front of the pack, next to the likes of Timothée Chalamet or Barry Keoghan. Already, there’s a sense that he is written into the history books as his breakout was one for the ages, seeing him instantly capture the zeitgeist during lockdown, at a time when people had nothing better to do than obsess over a new and attractive name.
But as the years have gone on, it’s easy to see that the actor is on an active mission to show his breadth and prove his staying power. It’s clear that he picks his projects with incredible care, when no doubt he has millions of offers now crossing his desk. Instead of diving into anything and everything, Mescal has chosen a more thoughtful path, teaming up with Charlotte Wells for her debut feature, Aftersun, to play a depressed young father, or with Andrew Haigh for the grief-stricken All of Us Strangers.
Even when he steps into big Hollywood productions, Mescal’s choices still feel deliberate. It almost seems as though he took on Gladiator II simply to prove he could, after a run of more subtle and emotional roles. Then came the news that he will spend the next 20 years filming Richard Linklater’s time-spanning epic Merrily We Roll Along, which felt like a clear statement that he intends to join the ranks of the greats and remain a major name for decades to come.
He almost wasn’t, though, and it all comes down to the classic tiny lie that any actor knows well. While the rest of us might be implored to tell the truth on our résumés, or maybe bend it the tiniest bit, that same rule doesn’t apply to performers. Instead, the trick is to lie, lie, lie, and then make it the truth down the line once you get the part, which is exactly what Mescal did to make sure he didn’t miss out on his breakthrough role as Connell in Normal People.
At the time, as a young acting student in Ireland, there was no hotter role. Literally everyone wanted it as Mescal remembered to Entertainment Weekly, “We were all saying that we were going to play Connell and Marianne and reading the book furiously”. He had just graduated from the Lir Academy at Trinity College, so having studied where the book is partially set, the competition was even steeper as all of his old classmates were obviously going out for that male lead part.
In conversations with his agent, it was clear that they’d be doing anything and everything to get him considered, but on the list of requirements for the role, the ability to drive was a must, and according to Mescal’s résumé, he apparently could.
“My agent was like, ‘We are not losing this job over you not being able to drive, so I’ll tell production that you can, and in the meantime, you go off and rattle through as many lessons as you can’”, he remembered. That’s the key to the industry: lie now, hide it later when you’re a success, and they won’t care.
It was stressful, sure, but with the rose-tinted reflection of having won the part, Mescal can look at it fondly, stating, “It was a really exciting time because we all recognised that it was going to be an Irish story and that they were looking for Irish actors”.
