- Gladiator II star Paul Mescal’s career is about to go in another direction
- The actor has been given his first producer credit for new movie The History of Sound
- Mescal and his co-star Josh O’Connor opened up about working on the project
He’s currently celebrating the release of his latest movie, Gladiator II.
But Paul Mescal’s career is about to go in a very different direction.
The actor, 28 – who first shot to fame in 2020 as Connell Waldron in the hit Hulu show, Normal People – has landed his first producer credit, which will be shown on his next film.
The History of Sound is an LGBTQ romance drama which also stars Josh O’Connor, and Mescal has been an executive producer on the project since its inception.
Now in post-production, the story follows two young men – Lionel (Mescal) and David (O’Connor) – in the shadows of WWI who are determined to record the lives, voices and music of their American countrymen. As they begin to log the events, the two fall in love.
The film is directed by Oliver Hermanus from a screenplay by Ben Shattuck, adapted from Shattuck’s award-winning short story.
In an interview with Variety, Mescal revealed he “knows the story better than anyone else” and wanted to be “more involved and have some say” in terms of its distribution.
He also said that, of all the scripts he’s ever read, “that’s the one that broke my heart the most” – which, for an actor who has starred in the likes of All of Us Strangers and received an Oscar-nominee for his role in Aftersun, really says a lot.
‘I had to keep up with Paul!’
Mescal isn’t the only one who had something to say this week about the new movie.
O’Connor, 34 – who fans adored this year for his role in Challengers, in which he starred opposite Zendaya and Mike Faist – was full of praise for his co-star as he opened up about his role in the movie.
“I had to learn a bit of piano, which I really enjoyed, and I had to sing with Paul Mescal, who’s actually a very good singer. I had to try and keep up with him,” he revealed.
