Paul Mescal is in danger of becoming ubiquitous. The evidence? Exhibit A: while walking through Soho yesterday afternoon, just steps from Vogue House, I was amazed to see the reluctant heartthrob having a casual smoke on the side of the street. (He was wearing big, anonymous Hollywood sunglasses, but they didn’t serve their purpose—within seconds, he was spotted by a fan who asked for a selfie. Paul obliged, gentleman that he is. Did I join the queue for one? No. Do I now regret it? Yes.) And Exhibit B: just a week after we were treated to a tantalising first look at the dashing Oscar nominee’s upcoming dystopian thriller Foe, in which he’ll play the husband of another national treasure, Saoirse Ronan, yet more pictures have now emerged from another forthcoming release in which he stars as the love interest of another fellow Irish stalwart: All of Us Strangers, which features the Hot Priest himself, Andrew Scott.
Directed and penned by Andrew Haigh—the British filmmaker behind the sensitive gay romance Weekend, and the critically-lauded coming-of-age saga Lean on Pete—it’s been described as a surreal, metaphysical love story. The intriguing log line reads: “One night in his near-empty tower block in contemporary London, Adam (a screenwriter, played by Andrew Scott) has a chance encounter with his mysterious neighbour Harry (Paul Mescal) that punctures the rhythm of his everyday life. As Adam and Harry get closer, Adam is pulled back to his childhood home where it appears his long-dead parents (Claire Foy and Jamie Bell) are both living and look the same age as the day they died 30 years before.” Things getting steamy between Mescal and Scott, and the return of Foy, largely elusive since her stint on The Crown? Sign us up.
The newly released stills have added to the excitement, too—you can almost feel the heat between them as Mescal puts his arm around Scott in a neon-drenched, sweaty club, and don’t even get us started on the one of them sharing a lift, where the sexual tension rivals those unforgettable scenes in Drive and Grey’s Anatomy.
While a 22 December release date has been set for the film’s US debut, a UK date is still yet to be confirmed. Will we have much longer to wait? I’ll be sure to ask Paul the next time I bump into him.
This article was originally published on British Vogue.
