Paul Mescal in Cannes

These are fresh photos of Paul Mescal in Cannes today at the photo call for The History of Sound which premiered last night but it’s not his gala look that’s doing it for me, it’s Paul Mescal in the daylight. 

Honestly, the original point of this post wasn’t anything other than… oh, I’m feeling something. But I’ll try to keep it respectable and talk about some work sh-t first, which is that Paul is playing Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes’s Beatles film series and there were some headlines this week about how John Lennon’s sister isn’t down with the casting, singling out Paul as Paul. Of course it was the Daily Mail stirring this sh-t up. 

Anyway, John’s sister, Julia Baird, is quoted in the tabloid as follows: 

“Well he’s in everything! What’s wrong with Liverpool? We have actors, and they speak the language. I don’t think anything other than, have they been investigated and looked at Liverpool actors? Paul Mescal is in everything – get real, come on.”

The Beatles are, well, The Beatles. So it’s understandable for people to have big feelings about casting. Especially people online who are bitching about how they should have cast unknowns in the roles and how the physical resemblances aren’t there. 

Like I get it, but I also don’t. Because I’m not sure that the realities of filmmaking are being taken into account here. It’s getting harder and harder for film financing to come together – and investors are often looking for bankable names. Financing a film, period, is a risk. Financing a film with an unknown actor is an even bigger risk, even if it’s for a movie, or FOUR movies, about The Beatles. Have we forgotten that people are going to the movies less and less these days?! The same people out here crabbing about casting, how many times are they going to the cineplex every year to see a movie outside of their homes? 

Whatever, this isn’t even why I’m here in the first place. I’m here because these photos of Paul Mescal are some of the hottest I’ve ever seen of him (that’s not in a magazine editorial where it’s a deliberate thirst trap). I know he’s an internet boyfriend, well aware of the effect he has on people out there. I appreciate his acting, his career choices, but it’s just never been on a horny level. 

But in the Cannes sun, with that grey streaking through his hair that looks slightly damp, and it’s curling around his neck and ears, and just the right amount of stubble… I’m ALL the way in. And also I just realised he looks like my husband, LOOOOOOOOLLLL.