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"...For an actor whose global touchpoint is as a paragon of soft,
tender-but-rugged sexuality, back-to-back projects that hinge on a
character's ability to quell the violent and emotionally-vacant urges of
their psyche is a bold but necessary step for Mescal. Many internet
boyfriends of yesteryear have fallen at the hurdle of being boxed into
their government-assigned personas, like soft-boi jock Noah Centineo or
quintessential English charmer Benedict Cumberbatch. The ones who break
free but still maintain their collective adoration are the ones that
recarve their totality outside the confines of their designated
categories, like Timothée Chalamet or Oscar Isaac.
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www.gq-magazine.co.uk
Paul Mescal is entering his hardboi era with Gladiator 2 and A Streetcar Named Desire
With every internet boyfriend that emerges, there comes with him a set of indelible qualities. For Timothée Chalamet it was his angular vulnerability, for Robert Pattinson it was his unwavering commitment to being a total freak and for Paul Mescal, who earned that crown in the early days of the pandemic in Sally Rooney's Normal People, it was his signature trademark of softboi tenderness. But that era might soon be over.
As the gold chain-donning Connell, he blended the perfect amount of vulnerability and non-threatening hunkiness with just an added pinch of emotional damage, which is a recipe he's repeated in projects since. In 2021's The Lost Daughter, he embodied the idea of an escapist but engaged holiday fling and in 2022's critically-lauded Aftersun, he palpably explored the character of a depressed young father to a daughter on the verge of being a teenager.
In a career trajectory that hit an enormous high right out of the gate, Mescal has been an actor atop more ‘most-anticipated next choices' lists than anyone since Normal People hit our screens like a flood of much-needed physical tenderness. And while his choices so far have further cemented his status as a beacon of cosy hunkdom, his next phase looks like it's pushing him into roles leaning far closer to traditional portrayals of uber-masculinity.
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It's been confirmed Mescal will lead the cast of Ridley Scott's long-awaited sequel to 2000's Gladiator, apparently beating a stacked audition roster that included Austin Butler, Miles Teller, and Richard Madden (but not Timothée Chalamet, as his agents made great effort to confirm). More than 20 years on from the original where Russell Crowe demanded to know whether we were being entertained (the answer: yes), this trip back into the arena will see Mescal play Lucius, the son of Connie Nielson's Lucilla, the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix's Commodus and the grandson of the slain Marcus Aurelius, played by Richard Harris.
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Gladiator launched Crowe into the stratosphere of leading men of the aughts, with the role intricately balancing the sheer brawn of someone able to slay a Bengal tiger with the emotional depth of a man grieving his murdered family. It's not hard to see how Mescal can fit into that mould, with a trench of emotionality at his fingertips all that's left is the physique (which his viral short shorts prove isn't an issue).
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This new phase lines up with his current gig, starring on stage as Stanley Kowalski in Tennessee Williams’s iconic A Streetcar Named Desire in London's West End. A role etched in history thanks to tender-gazed manly-man blueprint Marlon Brando in 1951, Kowalski is the epitome of toxic masculinity, a character devoid of empathy and kindness and with a propensity for mindless cruelty that leaves a trail of destroyed women in his wake.
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For an actor whose global touchpoint is as a paragon of soft, tender-but-rugged sexuality, back-to-back projects that hinge on a character's ability to quell the violent and emotionally-vacant urges of their psyche is a bold but necessary step for Mescal. Many internet boyfriends of yesteryear have fallen at the hurdle of being boxed into their government-assigned personas, like soft-boi jock Noah Centineo or quintessential English charmer Benedict Cumberbatch. The ones who break free but still maintain their collective adoration are the ones that recarve their totality outside the confines of their designated categories, like Timothée Chalamet or Oscar Isaac.
Paul Mescal may have traced his name into the annals of internet boyfriend history thanks to the enduring charm of a loveable soft-boi, but his launch into the hardboi realm may just etch it in stone forever.
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