Paul Mescal says he's ready for a more 'private' love life after Phoebe Bridgers romance

The BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney's second novel Normal People catapulted the young Irish actor Paul Mescal, who was only 23 during filming in 2019, into the mainstream. Mescal starred opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones and the two young actors achieved almost overnight recognition for their acting and on-screen chemistry when the BBC drama aired in 2020.

The now 27-year-old from Maynooth, a university town which lies to the west of Dublin, has enjoyed a stratospheric rise to acclaim in his professional life.

He has been nominated for an Oscar for his role as a young father in the film Aftersun. The film won rave reviews after premiering at the Cannes Film Festival, before opening the 2022 Edinburgh International Film Festival.

Mescal is currently featuring as Stanley Kowalski in a new production of Tennessee Williams’ ‘A Streetcar Named Desire’ which is running at London’s Almeida Theatre until February 2023.

He also has films which are at various stages of production – two adaptations of novels called ‘Foe’ and ‘Strangers’, and Richard Linklater's version of musical ‘Merrily We Roll Along’.

The sequel to Gladiator is apparently set to feature Mescal.

Deadline reported that meetings with Ridley Scott for the role began to heat up once a final draft was delivered in November, with Mescal being one of the first to sit down with the director. Mescal will be playing Lucius, the son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), who has grown up with admiration for Maximus (Russel Crowe’s character), who saved him and his mother.

Mescal has featured heavily in headlines surrounding his love life, shifting the focus away from his career onto territory that he now realises is not ideal.

The actor is featured on the cover of the latest edition of The Hollywood Reporter and opened up about the end of his romance from musician Bridgers, 28.

When asked if he will ever touch on the subject of their split, Mescal said: "Maybe at some point. But just not now. It’s just difficult territory. Yeah."

It has been rumoured for months that Mescal had split from the Californian musician Phoebe Bridgers which he has yet to address directly.

"Sometimes I can drown it out and then other times it makes me really mad and upset," he told the latest issue of Vanity Fair.

"People are going to write and say things because there’s a certain interest with any person who’s in the public eye in how that person lives their life, and who they’re living up with, and what they’re doing and how they’re going about doing it. 

"And look, a lot of the time people are really kind about their support for me. That’s my predominant experience."

He was even more candid about how negative the attention can be for his mindset as he explained: "I definitely feel the temptation to say the status of my whatever - that will always be there. But I don’t think that’s a wise thing to do. 

"When Normal People came out, I was very forthright in interviews, and it didn’t actually serve me. But the temptation still exists to be like, 'Shut the f**k up. This is my life. This is what’s going on. Or this is what’s going on.'

"But moving forward as much as I can, that’s going to be my life that is private. That’s a difficult thing to achieve. But giving strangers an answer about my life doesn’t actually help me."