Paul Mescal was born in Maynooth, Ireland, about 30 minutes west of Dublin. He graduated from Trinity College in 2017, and went to work in the theater, getting roles in
The Great Gatsby, The Plough and the Stars, A Midsummer Night's Dream,
A Streetcar Named Desire and
A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man.
In 2020 he broke into television with a starring role in Normal People, about two Trinity College undergrads in love.
Wait -- why are they "normal people"? Do they have some marginalized trait, like being autistic? Reading the description, it doesn't sound like it. Marianne is rich and outspoken, Paul an A-list athlete. Sounds like "Love Story." The only conflict I can see is that they both have friends who would oppose the match, so they have to keep it a secret. I guess "normal" just means being heterosexual, as opposed to gay.
Apparently the two have a lot of sex, with long scenes of them being languid in each other's arms afterwards, so if you can find some way to crop the girl out, you can get a lot of dick pics.
But wait -- Buzzfeed News tells us that "Paul Mescal just called out a woman who made him "really angry" by telling him she'd seen him naked and saved a nude screenshot."
The woman approached him in a bar and said: "I didn’t think the show was any good, but I saw your willy and I have a photo!”
His response: “Truly gross. What is a person supposed to reply to something like that? That's fucking rude!"
I can understand his reaction: you haven't seen the actor naked, you've seen the character he is portraying. Besides, even if you did see someone's dick without an invitation, like in the urinals or the locker room, why would you brag to them about it? It would be like saying "I'm stalking you."
But he brings up a question: is seeing an actor's penis on screen substantially different from seeing his face, or his bare chest? The aesthetic appeal of the actor's face and physique adds to our enjoyment of the movie, in some cases quite a lot. But does the penis move the scene away from the aesthetic into the erotic? And is that inappropriate?
I don't think so. An actor's work can be enjoyed on many levels. Faces and physiques can be quite erotic, and a penis has aesthetic appeal. Viewers can enjoy an image in many ways, for what it reveals about the character, for its placement in the narrative, for its symbolic value, because it is beautiful, or because it is hot.
Especially with the girl cropped out.Next question: Does Paul star in anything good? That is, with gay characters, gay subtexts, or an intriguing premise, and minimal red flags like terminal illness.
Normal People is out. I'm turned off by the implication that being heterosexual is "normal," so being gay is "abnormal." Besides, it's just a collegiate romance. We've seen hundreds of them.
According to the IMDB, Paul next appeared in four episodes of The Deceived, 2020: A university student falls in love with her prof, who may have killed his wife. Paul's character is in love with her. Looking for gay content, I found a reference to a subplot on a discussion board, but nothing about it appears in reviews. Nope.
The Lost Daughter, 2021: A university professor on holiday in Greece remembers being a "selfish and unnatural" mother who had an affair and abandoned her family. Yuck.
God's Creatures, 2022. "In a windswept fishing village, a mother is torn between protecting her beloved son and her own sense of right and wrong" I'm looking for something interesting, innit?
More Paul after the break
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