When you come from a country as small as Ireland, there is one universal truth: there's bound to be at least one potentially embarrassing fact that you’ll be perennially remembered for. That goes for famous folk, too: for many people of a certain generation, Gabriel Byrne is still 'Yer man from Bracken’. A teenage Imelda May’s ad for Findus Fish Fingers is still brought up (to her understandable chagrin) in interviews. And who’d miss an opportunity to remind people that Colin Farrell started off in Ballykissangel? In other words, Paul Mescal will always be remembered in certain cohorts as ‘The ‘Ballyhaunis’ lad from the Denny sausages ad’ - despite the fact that the 26-year-old’s name will be prefaced with ‘Academy Award nominee’ (and possibly ‘winner’?) from here on in.
It’s the understatement of the decade to say that the Kildare actor has done well for himself in the five years that have passed since that ad debuted. Growing up, Mescal’s potential as a GAA star was cut short by injury, although he was bitten by the acting bug when he first appeared as the titular Phantom of the Opera in an amateur production at the age of 16. Soon after graduating from Dublin acting academy The Lir in 2017, Mescal soon set the ball rolling on his bright future with numerous stage roles, including the lead in The Gate’s production of The Great Gatsby that same year, Martin McDonagh’s The Lieutenant of Inishmore, and Landmark’s adaptation of Louise O’Neill’s novel Asking For It at the Abbey Theatre.
A wider audience - both Irish and elsewhere, thanks to its co-production status with BBC and Hulu - first became familiar (read: obsessed) with Mescal via Normal People, which aired during the dark days of lockdown in 2020. It would be disingenuous to suggest that his career was forged solely on the basis that there was nothing better to do than sit in and watch telly at the time; in the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s hit novel, Mescal played the character of Connell with a remarkable balance of tenderness and insouciance. As big breaks go, it was the perfect introduction.
Once the Normal People kerfuffle had settled, there was no chance of Mescal being a normal person ever again. Further TV roles in eerie drama The Deceived followed, as well as a starring role in the Rolling Stones music video for their song Scarlet.
Off-screen, he cultivated an air of mystery, whether calculated or by accident; he deleted his Instagram, unwittingly made O’Neill’s GAA shorts into a fashion must-have, and even had a celebrity girlfriend on his arm in uber-cool musician Phoebe Bridgers (a relationship now sadly rumoured to be over.)
In terms of his career, he has yet to put a foot wrong. Following parts in The Lost Daughter, God’s Creatures, and his turn in Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun - the role that brought him the first (but not last, you might imagine) Oscar nomination of his career at just 26 - he has taken a wide berth of Hollywood, instead returning to the stage for a role in a London production of A Streetcar Named Desire.
Will we see him in a Marvel franchise movie anytime soon? Never say never - but it’s clear that Mescal is mapping a carefully considered route through his career: forthcoming projects include a role spanning a twenty-year shoot in Richard Linklater’s Merrily We Roll Along, while he has clearly hit upon a winning formula in the ‘book to movie’ adaptation, with two more on the cards this year (sci-fi thriller Foe and fantasy drama All Of Us Strangers). Then there's his leading role in Ridley Scott's long-awaited Gladiator 2, set to film this summer - Russell Crowe didn't do too badly out of the original.
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And who could begrudge him? There’s a heartwarming Irishness to it all, a sense of ownership; how many other mammies went on national radio to declare their pride the day after their child was nominated for an Oscar, as Dearbhla Mescal did on RTE Radio One the other day? Her son’s rise has been comparatively swift, but it looks like there’s a long career ahead of him. Perhaps, even one as an Oscar winner.
