All of Us Strangers star Paul Mescal has revealed his connection to “queer culture” and who he has a “massive talent crush on”.
Mescal plays Harry opposite Andrew Scott (Adam) in the new fantasy romance film All of Us Strangers, written and directed by Andrew Haigh.
Tapping into the character experience, Mescal has explained how he “understands” the “party culture side to Harry is like a tool that he uses to escape,”
Referencing his experience of queer culture, he told Out: “I have a proximity to that in my own life, so it didn’t feel like that part of it wasn’t necessarily eye-opening or anything to me personally.”
In the same interview, Scott explores the queer experience and how “a lot of the time it’s not outward rejection nor is it all-embracing acceptance.”
He added: “For a lot of people, it’s a sort of thorny time where your parents or members of your family ask you questions that are clumsy and sometimes unwittingly cruel and upsetting.
“There has to be a period of adjustment, and I think that’s a more common experience for people.”
The pair have been widely praised for their undeniable on-screen chemistry.
“To be admired for your work is a great privilege, and to move people, it’s an amazing thing to be able to say,” said Mescal, who also admitted that he has a “massive talent crush and admiration for” Beach Rats star Harris Dickinson.
Based on the novel Strangers by Japanese novelist Taichi Yamada, All of Us Strangers follows Adam, a screenwriter who is pulled back into his childhood home “where he discovers that his long-dead parents are both living and look the same age as the day they died over 30 years ago”.
At the same time, Adam falls in love with his “mysterious” neighbour Harry.
As with any good love story, both characters are complex multifaceted individuals, which was appealing to Mescal. “I wouldn’t have played this part if I was just a representation of a sad gay man or the happy party,” he said. “It’s the fact that both of those things exist beside each other.”
Also starring Claire Foy and Jamie Bell as Adam’s parents, the film has received universal critical acclaim – it currently holds a 95% approval rating on Rotten Tomatoes.
Mescal is best known for his breakout role in Normal People, which earned him a Primetime Emmy Award nomination and a BAFTA TV Award. He also received an Academy Award nomination for his performance in the 2022 coming-of-age drama Aftersun.
Scott, a fellow BAFTA winner, is known to audiences for television shows such as Sherlock (2010-2017) and Fleabag (2019), in addition to films such as Pride (2014), Spectre (2015) and Alice Through the Looking Glass (2016).
All of Us Strangers was released in the US on 22 December and is headed straight to UK screens on 26 January.
Watch the full trailer below.
Latest
