“How Paul Mescal, an Irish actor with only 3 films in his career, scored an Oscar Best Actor nomination” | Entertainment | Cinema

In contrast to actors like Pedro Pascal and Samuel L. Jackson, who didn’t hit the big time in the film industry until relatively late in their careers, Paul Mescal already has an Oscar nomination, in the Best Leading Actor category for his role. in After sun. Mescal, 27, had been in just 3 movies and two television series before being nominated by the Academy, which gave the Oscar for best actor to Brendan Fraser on March 12.

The Irish-born actor wasn’t always interested in acting. His first love was Gaelic football, a sport similar to handball, which is very popular in Ireland and Scotland. A jaw injury kept him from the sport, and he soon took up acting: he enrolled in a conservatory, followed by his first forays into the theater. He landed roles in plays presented in Dublin and London.

He then had his acting debut on television in the series Normal people. The show premiered at the start of the COVID-19 pandemic. Mescal played a charming high school student, a role that quickly made him a rising star and earned him a BAFTA Award in the Best Actor category.

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The sudden rise in his career surprised him: Mescal had not expected to win a BAFTA award. He had not even prepared a speech in case they gave him the award, and he went up on stage to receive the award forced to improvise his words.

He did have a speech prepared in case he won the Oscar, although he admitted that he never expected to win. “I’m not going to win,” the Irishman confessed to the magazine ES. “Basically I can relax and enjoy it.” In the same interview, however, he revealed that he occasionally realizes the weight of being nominated for an Oscar. He also indicated that he hoped that Colin Farrell, nominated for Banshees in Inisherintake the statuette, and that he plans to frame the emergency speech he had prepared “after never having to use it.”

Competition from the Irish actor in the Best Leading Actor category was strong. In addition to Farrell, he was up against actors like Fraser, who has reinvigorated his career by taking on arthouse film projects like The whalefor which he won the award, and Austin Butler, nominated for his starring role in Elvisthe biopic of the king of rock and roll, Elvis Presley.

Although he was the least optioned to win the Oscar, Mescal was not far behind either: his role in After sun it was widely praised by critics. the french newspaper The worldFor example, he called Mescal’s performance “magnetic” and was full of praise for the film, which explores the relationship between Calum, a young divorced father in his mid-30s (played by Mescal) and Sophie, his daughter from 11 years old, during a summer vacation.

After sun It has been praised as a feature film reminiscent of another era, as it is slow and without great traces of explicit conflict, but at the same time it challenges the old notions about fatherhood, since Calum is not the typical father tough, inflexible and immune to his own emotions. He is a doting father, though he hides his depression from his daughter.

“You often see absent fathers in traditional dramas, and you’re like, ‘Oh, he’s going to have an epiphany moment.’ In After sunOn the other hand, Calum is a very good father but the rest of his life is difficult for him. At times he hates himself, but he never shows it to his daughter, which is dramatically very interesting and sad, “Mescal reflected in a conversation written for the magazine Interview with Dakota Johnson, actress famous for her leading role in Fifty Shades of Grey and appearances on tapes like La red social. Johnson was a partner of set of Mescal in The lost daughter, the first feature film of the actor now nominated for an Oscar.

Mescal’s character in After sun he was a precocious father, and the concept of precociousness seems to haunt the actor throughout his career. In the first scene of The lost daughter (also her first scene in a feature film), Mescal had to kiss Johnson, which she found intimidating.

“For some reason, the first scene we had to do was me kissing you,” Mescal recalled of filming. The lost daughter in his conversation with Johnson. “I thought ‘what the hell is going on?’”

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now the actor Normal people it is full of work. Soon he will release a new movie called Carmendirected by Benjamin Millipied, husband of actress Natalie Portman and in charge of the choreographies of the acclaimed film the black swan.

In May 2023 he will also start recording for gladiator 2which is scheduled for a worldwide release on November 24, 2024. gladiator 2 it will be the first movie blockbuster (high box office draw) in Mescal’s short career. The sequel to Gladiator It will arrive 24 years after the first installment, starring Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix.

The original film was nominated for 12 Oscars, and won in 5 categories: Crowe took the award for best actor, and the film took the statuettes for best picture, best costume design, best visual effects and best sound. (I)