- Paul Mescal has revealed he had a hard time finding a co-star for Normal People – until Daisy Edgar-Jones walked into the room
- Mescal revealed the story when he appeared on the YouTube series Hot Ones with Sean Evans this week
- Elsewhere online, a new wave of fans have discovered the sweet gift Mescal presented Edgar-Jones with when they wrapped on the shoot
They formed a close bond on the series which rocketed them to stardom.
And now Paul Mescal has opened up about the immediate “chemistry” he shared with Daisy Edgar-Jones when they were reading for Normal People.
The actor, 28, appeared on the YouTube series Hot Ones this week, where host Sean Evans asked him to explain what a chemistry read is.
The practice is an opportunity for actors to read with their potential co-stars, so that casting directors can see how instinctively both parties connect and work with each other.
And while Mescal admits it wasn’t an easy process to find the Marianne Sheridan to his Connell Waldron in the hit 2020 Hulu show, the decision to cast Edgar-Jones, 26, was “unanimous” when they met her.
“[For] Normal People, I did some chemistry reads with other actresses for Marianne,” Mescal told Evans. “We didn’t get the Marianne from the first round of chemistry reads, and I thought at that point, that could be lights out for me, they’ll just go back to the drawing board. They could very easily have done that, but thankfully they didn’t.”
Mescal continued, “And Daisy was the second to last person who walked in. You hear actors and directors talk about it kind of incessantly, but when you know, you know. When Daisy walked in, it was like unanimous.”
Paul and Daisy keen to keep their chemistry alive
Mescal and Edgar-Jones’s sweet friendship has been under the spotlight again this week – after the Gladiator II actor revealed they are constantly looking for a new project together.
In an interview with Variety, the star admitted, “We’re basically flirting around the idea of what the next thing should look like.”A new wave of fans are also discovering the magic of Normal People – and how Mescal presented Edgar-Jones with a very sentimental wrap gift when they had finished filming.
