Like his Normal People co-star Daisy Edgar-Jones, Paul Mescal's knack of landing the right role at the right time continues with God's Creatures: a taut psychological character study that shows another side to him as an actor - this time opposite Emily Watson.
Here, as prodigal son Brian, Mescal returns from Australia to a fishing community in early-Nineties Ireland, and doting mother Aileen (Watson) hopes he's back for good. With the locals in mourning after the drowning of a young fisherman, the timing of Brian's return seems ominous. Sure enough, gut feelings are right yet again.
Below, Mescal and Watson discuss the making of the film.
Harry Guerin: This film has a twist that I wasn't expecting when I started to watch the movie. When you read the twist, was that the moment where you said, 'I'm in' or was it before that?
Paul Mescal: I was 'in' pretty much from the first couple of pages. Like, I think you can always tell a good script by the first [couple of pages]. Like, how the dialogue is written and the atmosphere is established. I think the 'twist', or the act that happens in the centre of the film, was something that I thought was interesting, but also it's the fallout of that, which I think is actually what the film is about, to me.
Emily Watson: I had a similar reaction. I was like, 'Who wrote this? I can smell this film coming off the page. This is so authentic'. That really interested me and then I got to the central event and was like, 'Woh, okay...' But it had a rhythm to me of Greek tragedy, really.
The chemistry between the two of you is so great and you bounce off each other so well. Did that click just from the get-go?
Emily Watson: It kind of did, yeah.
Paul Mescal: It clicked pretty quick, yeah. I've said this before: this film is totally and utterly Emily's film and she leads it so beautifully. I remember being nervous because I was like, 'I have lots of thoughts and ideas, but unless Emily comes in with, like...' I didn't have the confidence, essentially, to do that. Emily just came in so firmly and so protective of us as actors, as a whole filmmaking unit, that then it just felt like play because she'd come in so solidly and brilliantly. So yeah, I think that's all down to Emily leading us.
Emily Watson: So nice! (Laughs) Somebody's reputation precedes them - I saw Normal People and he's clearly a very gifted young actor, but his kind of energy and inquiry... We would sit and have conversations about craft in between scenes and he would ask me about [things]. That's such a lovely feeling when you're just really interested in what you're doing and have that sense of creativity in the moment. Watching him learning about preserving the intensity of things and then the directors just lobbing things in and changing the dynamic just felt very free and creative. It was great.
In terms of people's reactions to the film, what has surprised you most?
Paul Mescal: I think it'll be interesting now to see how it 'lands' here and in the UK, in particular. I don't think the film is beginning a new conversation; it is analysing something that I think we're in the process of analysing, so I'm curious to see where that sits in the society now as of 2023.
Emily Watson: There was a very strong sense of a young audience last night [at the Irish premiere]. That feels like a universal thing now - young people, they want to be challenged. They want to question things. They want stories that are questioning the establishment, really, which this does. It's kind of going, 'Establishment, where are you in this situation? Where do you take responsibility for this enabling and protecting?'
When I was your age, Paul, I wouldn't have seen a film in Ireland like this.
Paul Mescal: I take great pride in that fact... I also think it's really important to mention that it's directed by two wonderful women (Saela Davis and Anna Rose Holme) who live in New York. It doesn't feel like a film that's being gatekept for Irish people. It is innately an Irish film, and it's led by Emily, who is English. It feels like it's Irish, but it also just categorically is a universal conversation. But I'm proud of the fact that is coming through Irish voices.
God's Creatures is in cinemas now.
