Paul Mescal has been one busy man. Just days after celebrating the world premiere of Chloé Zhao’s “Hamnet” at Telluride, he flew across the country to attend the New York City premiere of Oliver Hermanus’ “The History of Sound,” which debuted at Cannes earlier this year, alongside co-star Josh O’Connor. All this while being in production for Sam Mendes’ Beatles biopic and in off-and-on production for Richard Linklater’s “Merrily We Roll Along.” Mr. Mescal, let’s hope you’re sleeping!
“Hamnet” reviews have been revelatory, coining it an instant awards contender. “It’s been such a relief for all of us, you know,” Mescal told IndieWire on the red carpet for his MUBI release. “Having a film premiere in any context is like giving a baby out into the world and we’re so, so thrilled that people seem to be, not [necessarily] responding positively, but people seem to be understanding the film that we made as filmmakers. It’s a big, big relief.”
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In the midst of his releases, Mescal is preparing to play Paul McCartney in Mendes’ four Beatles films, set to release in theaters April 2028 as the first “bingeable” movie experience. As for if he has connected with the real life counterpart, Mescal revealed, “I have, yeah. He’s an extraordinary man, like to spend any time— it’s a crazy sentence to say that I’ve spent time with that man, let alone play him.” As for if Mescal will be doing his own singing in the films, he said, “Yeah, yeah, absolutely yeah.”
Additionally, he’s filming Linklater’s decades-long project “Merrily We Roll Along,” a project that he remained a bit more tightly sealed about. “It’s one that he’s kind of swearing us to silence on, because if we start talking about it now, there’ll be nothing to talk about in 20 years, but I can say that he is one of my favorite directors in the world,” he said. “I make my way to Texas every couple of years and see him and see Beanie [Feldstein] and see Ben [Platt] and get to work with them. It’s also such a crazy process that it’s, like, so individual for me.”
“The History of Sound” made waves at Cannes for its sensitive portrayal of a love affair between Mescal and O’Connor’s characters. The former had nothing but praise for working with Hermanus: “Oliver made one of my favorite films that I’ve seen in the last give years, ‘Moffie.’”
“I think he’s a true auteur,” he continued. “He’s just got such a clear means of attack on scenes and who these characters are, and he knows how to frame them and put them at the center of the story. I loved working with him, he’s one of my closest friends.”
“I’ve been very lucky with the actors I’ve worked with across my career, with Josh [O’Connor], Andrew [Scott], Jessie [Buckley], Saoirse [Ronan], Daisy [Edgar-Jones], where nothing was ever intentional in terms of how you build a relationship [onscreen],” Mescal previously told IndieWire of creating chemistry with his co-star over an interview at the J.W. Marriott hotel in Cannes the day before “The History of Sound” premiered at the Palais.
“It either stands on its own two legs, or it doesn’t happen,” Mescal said. “With Josh, it very much felt comfortable. We knew each other, and we’d been talking about the film since 2020, so that’s when we first initially connected. He’s such a good soul. We’re quite similar in terms of the work that we like and are relatively similar as people. It just grew from there.”
A MUBI release, “The History of Sound” opens in theaters on Friday, September 12. Watch the trailer here.
