Forgot password
Enter the email address you used when you joined and we'll send you instructions to reset your password.
If you used Apple or Google to create your account, this process will create a password for your existing account.
This site is protected by reCAPTCHA and the Google Privacy Policy and Terms of Service apply.
Reset password instructions sent. If you have an account with us, you will receive an email within a few minutes.
Something went wrong. Try again or contact support if the problem persists.
Paul Mescal cries in 'All of Us Strangers'
Image via Searchlight Pictures

Paul Mescal hints that his gay romance with another Hollywood hottie is the saddest entry in his already devastating filmography

How exactly can it get sadder than 'Aftersun?' We're genuinely asking, here.

Paul Mescal, whose filmography includes three of the most devastating performances ever put to film, says his new movie, The History of Sound with Josh O’Connor, is the saddest thing he’s ever made.

Recommended Videos

In an interview with Variety to promote his first major blockbuster lead role in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II, the Irish actor confessed that, out of all the scripts he’s read in his still short but incredibly well-curated career, the upcoming gay romance film by Oliver Hermanus (Living, Beauty) “broke his heart the most.”

That is a bold statement to make for an actor whose breakout role came in the adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, also known as one of the most heart-wrenching love stories to grace television screens in the last decade. Even bolder when you consider he received his first Oscar nomination in 2023 for playing a suicidal young father in Charlotte Wells’ beautiful time-capsule directorial debut, Aftersun. He then followed that little happy pill with his third most acclaimed performance in Andrew Haigh’s queer ghost story, All of Us Strangers, as fellow Irishman Andrew Scott’s ambiguous, melancholic neighbor-turned-boyfriend. We’re genuinely concerned about what to expect from The History of Sound now, if Mescal’s comments mean it will out-sad his frankly unbeatable streak of somber.

The actor himself is aware of his “sad boy” reputation and has expressed his fear of being typecast as a tortured soul in the past. “I do want to expand my range in terms of genre, and scale of film. I have this perpetual fear that if I keep making films like this, people will get bored of me and they’ll think I’m just perpetually sad,” he told Awards Watch in 2023. The projects he has in the pipeline won’t do much in the way of changing this perception, but the one he has coming to theaters this November might.

Paul Mescal as Lucius preparing for battle in Gladiator 2
Image via Paramount Pictures

Mescal’s turn as the son of Russel Crowe’s Maximus, Lucius Verus, in Scott’s return to the arenas of the Roman Empire has been labeled “compelling” and “magnetic as always” in early reviews for the film. Still, it seems his swordplay and bravado did not leave critics or audiences feeling nearly as breathless as they did over the earnestness and emotional vulnerability of past roles. Not for long, however, seeing as the next year or so will see Mescal lead the foreseeably gloomy The History of Sound and Hamnet — both currently in post-production.

In The History of Sound, Mescal and O’Connor (who’s been having an equally exciting ascension into the Hollywood A-list over the last couple of years) play lovers in rural New England during the First World War, who join forces to compile “the lives, voices, and music of their American countrymen,” per the film’s IMDb page. In a recent Vanity Fair cover issue, O’Connor described it as a film about “grief, companionship, and music,” as well “as what happens in life when you fall in love with someone, and maybe that connection is broken.”

Photo montage of Josh O'Connor at the MET Gala and Paul Mescal at a Gucci Fashion Show and the two actors on the set of 'The History of Sound'.
Photos by Photo by Jeff Kravitz/FilmMagic/Tristan Fewings/Getty Images for Gucci

The 28-year-old actor is so invested in becoming the ultimate king of Pathos that he decided to become an executive producer in the film, telling Variety he plans to launch his own “super small and writer-led” production company one day. Asked whether he’d be primarily looking for films that “emotionally devastating and full of latent trauma,” Mescal replied “Oh yeah, that’s definitely the territory!”

Hamnet we know less about, but considering it will center William Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway’s lives after the death of their titular 11-year-old son, we’re not exactly expecting unicorns and rainbows. Mescal stars as the great English playwright and reunites with The Lost Daughter‘s Jessie Buckley in the role of his wife.

Neither have a release date just yet, but both are expected to arrive next year. Mescal might have taken a break from making us cry in 2024, choosing to make us sweat instead, but it sounds like the balance will be restored in 2025 and onwards as he continues to build his legacy as one of the greatest dramatic performers of his generation.


We Got This Covered is supported by our audience. When you purchase through links on our site, we may earn a small affiliate commission. Learn more about our Affiliate Policy
Author
Image of Francisca Tinoco
Francisca Tinoco
Francisca is a pop culture enthusiast and film expert. Her Bachelor's Degree in Communication Sciences from Nova University in Portugal and Master's Degree in Film Studies from Oxford Brookes University in the UK have allowed her to combine her love for writing with her love for the movies. She has been a freelance writer and content creator for five years, working in both the English and Portuguese languages for various platforms, including WGTC.