Paul Mescal is in New York today for a final push before Gladiator II opens on Friday. I have talked repeatedly over the last few weeks about how much I’m enjoying Paul Mescal on this press tour, specifically the way he’s embracing his big Movie Star moment. 

 

Paul, of course, is already popular online, an internet boyfriend. But this is the movie that’s meant to make him a Movie Star. This is Gladiator. This is a big budget, this is blockbuster, this is award season. This is pressure. After all, Russell Crowe won an Oscar in this role. Gladiator won Best Picture. So he and his team would have been fully aware of the expectations that would come with taking on this role. And not only did he accept those expectations for the experience of working with Ridley Scott and Denzel Washington, for the professional gain and the artistic process, he’s also accepted that fronting a huge movie like this comes with public heat, another level of fame, and the fame game. 

 

If he’s having a bad time? You could never tell. 

Yesterday I posted about Timothée Chalamet, as he prepares to promote A Complete Unknown and kick off his Oscar campaign. Timmy has already arrived where Paul is headed, he’s had more time to acclimate but also more time to hate it. If he does hate it, he isn’t talking about it. And Paul’s attitude so far is nothing but bring it on. Between the two of them, so far, movie stardom seems to be in good hands. 

 

Here’s Paul actually doing a junket bit with one of his biggest fans and It. Is. Adorable. 

I’m sure Larissa was fully vetted by the studio and his team beforehand to make sure she’s not batsh-t but this isn’t the kind of thing we see all that often on a press tour with just any celebrity. Paul is up for it though and it’s a great look on him.

 

Speaking of the look though… 

Timmy, as we’ve seen, loves fashion, and sets himself apart from the male movie stars who came before him in how much he cares, openly, about fashion. He’s a red carpet stunt queen, unapologetically, and while Paul’s style isn’t as fashion forward as Timmy’s, he’s not out here in the same suit over and over again either. This is a man who comfortably rocks around London in short shorts. There is thought and flair in his presentation. 

And I f-cking LOVE that he did a Vogue GRWM ahead of the London premiere. We’re seeing him with eye masks on. There are hair products all over the place. His stylist, Felicity Kay, is walking us through their strategy for the press tour. And at one point he’s talking about how they decided that for Gladiator II, his watch vibe was going to be “tiny”. Small watches that look more like bracelets, very feminine, very demure, if you will. And I know that these are just little details, no pun intended, but it does matter that these young male stars are so candid and open about their vanity, about their interest in how they look. 

 

It’s not new that actors care about their looks, of course not. But for a long time it was the convention for them to pretend to NOT care about their looks. And Timmy and Paul, they’re just not about that anymore. This, for me, is a softer and more honest kind of masculinity. And maybe, slowly, it can set a new standard. 

 

Here's Paul at the LA premiere of Gladiator II on Monday night.