Oscar-winning Moonlight director Barry Jenkins praises Paul Mescal for embracing the indie cool kid status.
Normal People star has been receiving buzz from the Hollywood industry for his work on two great A24’s movies releasing this year, God’s Creature and Aftersun.
With consecutive leading parts under the umbrella of A24 — the film production and distribution business behind zillennial trope Euphoria, Zola, and Bodies Bodies Bodies — it’s easy to imagine Mescal is building up indie identity.
However, Jenkins who is also producer for Aftersun, spoke to Bustle and says that A24 is a ‘cool’ place but they’ve always resented that affiliation, and believes Paul Mescal does not have that Hollywood glitter in his work.
“Coming off of Normal People, he could have gone and been the next young Hollywood male heartthrob. But he’s in Aftersun wearing ’80s dad jeans and cheesy T-shirts. I don’t think either of the films that Paul is in are like this ‘cool kid’ genre. They’re very earnest characters. All praise to him for going against the grain of what’s cool in neon lights.”
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Aftersun is a fictitious yet very intimate film by Charlotte Wells about a girl named Sophie (Celia Rowlson-Hall) who reflects on a trip she went with her father 20 years ago that symbolized how there was a part of him she didn’t know about. Mescal, as young father Calum, appears largely in the film’s memory sequences, opposing a young Sophie portrayed by Frankie Corio.
Aftersun releases on 18th November 2022.
