How Normal People star Paul Mescal went from sausage advert to being tipped to be next James Bond
FANS cannot get enough of steamy new drama Normal People – and especially its hunky leading man.
Previously best known for starring in sausage adverts, actor Paul Mescal is sending pulses racing and is even being tipped as the next James Bond.
Paul, 24, stars as Connell Waldron in the BBC series, which has become the surprise hit of lockdown, topping Killing Eve with a record-breaking 16million streams on iPlayer.
The rollercoaster story, adapted from Sally Rooney’s best-selling 2018 novel of the same name, follows the lives of young lovers in Ireland — and is filled with raw emotion, nudity and intense sex scenes.
Paul, from County Kildare near Dublin, says: “We worked hard to make it feel like it was a real, accurate and truthful representation of sex amongst young people.
“It’s something I’m incredibly proud of. I wouldn’t like to have done the show without nudity in it because the book is so visceral and raw, and when I read the book the characters are clearly naked in my head.
“Do I have to get naked? Yeah, absolutely fine. Do I want screenshots all over the internet? Probably not, but that’s ultimately something I can’t control.”
And, of course, the internet is quick to oblige, with fans gushing over the actor.
Even his silver neck chain — which often ends up the only thing he is wearing — has its own Instagram account created by admirers.
Fan Charlotte Williams tweeted: “On a scale of 1-10, how badly do you want to be the chain around Paul Mescal’s neck? I’m 11.”
Cecilia Sargent added: “I’ve just been told about a new sexuality called Mescalsexual — attracted to Paul Mescal.”
And Ruby commented: “Paul Mescal, if you are reading this, I’m free literally every day after quarantine and would like to hang out, please let me know.”
Even comedian and host James Corden has chimed in about the series, tweeting: “I honestly think it may have changed my life. It’s the best show I’ve watched in so long.”
That led to Paul responding: “WTF is happening?”
To help make the sex scenes as real as possible, producers called in intimacy co-ordinator Ita O’Brien.
She has previously worked on Netflix’s Sex Education, starring Gillian Anderson, and BBC1’s Gentleman Jack, which saw Suranne Jones and Sophie Rundle play lesbian lovers.
Paul was so pleased with the results he sat down with his family to watch the whole drama, including the sauciest moments.
He said: “It is an odd experience when you say, ‘OK, in episode two there is a big, old sex scene’.
“They were amazing about it because they were in a position where they knew it was going to be required from day one, so they knew they were going to have to sit and watch it.”
Viewers have hailed Paul’s sensational performance as popular young Connell who falls for geeky Marianne Sheridan, played by Daisy Edgar-Jones, 21.
Their on-off romance has struck a chord with viewers, reminding many of their first loves — with extra raunchiness thrown in. From the first episode of the 12-part series, we see Marianne wanting Connell to take her virginity.
And after we witness their first time together — along with a beachside bonk in the back of his car — Marianne admits to having had wild fantasies when she saw him race around the football pitch in his shorts.
She tells him: “I was watching you play and, honestly, you looked so beautiful. I just kept thinking how much I wanted to watch you have sex.
“I mean, not even with me, with anybody. How good it would feel. Is that really weird?”
In a later scene, a friend suggests a threesome. Connell is shocked but Marianne gives it serious thought.
She says: “I’d have done it if you’d wanted to. Had you wanted to, I’d have enjoyed you wanting to.
“I like doing things for you. I like making you happy.” Marianne is the daughter of middle-class solicitor Denise in the largely working-class town of Carricklea, in north west Ireland.
Her large house is cleaned by Connell’s mum Lorraine, who had him when she was a teenager.
Commenting on the lead characters’ relationship, actress Daisy says: “They speak to each other in a way that they can’t speak to anyone else, and it’s rare to find those people.
“They also really fancy each other which is probably a key reason.”
After keeping their affair secret at school and eventually breaking up, they both end up at Trinity College, Dublin — where the highly sexual relationship starts all over again.
Later episodes feature a string of full-frontal nudity scenes of both Paul, in what is his first major TV role, and Daisy, who has had small parts in shows Cold Feet and Outnumbered.
Up to now, Paul’s most high-profile TV gig was an advert for Denny’s pork sausages, where he plays an Irish teenager inspired to travel the world after eating one of their bangers.
He has also appeared in stage shows throughout his youth, including Les Mis as Inspector Javert, and pursued his other love of gaelic football — though the two do not sit easily together.
Paul explains: “I went to catch the ball once and I got a forearm across the jaw. I had to rehearse on the Monday with my jaw shut and I had to tell everyone in college that I had been working in Maxol petrol station and that I had been mugged behind the till. My deep, dark secret was that I was playing football.”
Like Connell, Paul also studied at Trinity College — but they share a darker similarity, too. In the TV series, which is being shown weekly on BBC1 as well as in full on the iPlayer, Connell has to deal with the suicide of a school friend.
It is a tragedy that Paul is all too familiar with. He says: “Three people killed themselves at my school. So it’s not fiction to me, it’s real and I was really nervous portraying it.
“I wasn’t equipped to cope with that level of devastation.
“The distinct feeling I remember having at the time is that I didn’t know how to perform sadness in the way I saw other people around me being sad. I was nervous people didn’t think I was sad enough.
“I found the whole thing incredibly confusing and, in hindsight, formative. My innocence was ripped away very quickly.”
He also had an intense relationship in secondary school, similar to the one Connell has with Marianne.
He says: “I remember that feeling in my body when I was sitting in class and my brain was constantly in tune with this other person.
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“And although I wasn’t hiding the relationship like he does, I remember worrying, ‘What would my friends think if we held hands in the corridor?’.”
Another thing they have in common is their rugged good looks, which he found out when he met the author before filming.
He says: “Sally Rooney said that I looked like how she had imagined when she was writing it four or five years ago. When she kind of gave me her blessing, that was a major weight off my shoulders.”
But as his star continues to soar, Paul is going to have to get used to a whole lot more weight upon those muscly shoulders.
- Normal People is on BBC1 on Mondays at 9pm. All episodes available now on BBC iPlayer.
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