Gladiator II star Paul Mescal has been the subject of many headlines in recent years, but it was a rumour on TikTok last year that captured many people’s imaginations and remained unaddressed by the actor — until now.
One person on the app described hearing through the grapevine that Mescal would have a one-night stand with a woman, bring her to a nearby park the next morning, and, out of the blue, run off, never to be heard from again. It was one of those obvious hoaxes that was shared widely for its comedy value, and Mescal never addressed it.
However, in an interview with GQ magazine, the Normal People actor was asked about it. The interviewer describes how Mescal immediately holds his head in his hands and starts ‘belly laughing and turning red’.
“Ohhhhhhh. Fucking hell!” Mescal said before telling the interviewer about discovering the videos while at home in Kildare with his family. He said he and his siblings, Nell and Donnacha, found it funny but his mother had a different reaction.
“We were looking at the videos and we were pissing ourselves at it. Categorically untrue. And we were laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing,” he said.
“And the one thing that upset me was that I was in the kitchen, I remember my mum looking at the videos and she was getting upset. Isn’t that devastating?
“I was like, ‘Oh, it’s funny to us’ – my brother, me, my sister – because we know that this is the way the internet works. It’s hilarious. If it was true, it’d be fucking bad, but as a rumour, it’s funny.
“Then I was like, Oh, if you’re a mother, her impulse is to come out and be like, ‘He wouldn’t do this.’ ”
Mescal also mentioned that his family has become more close-knit in recent years since his mother Dearbhla, who is now in remission, was diagnosed with multiple myeloma, a blood cancer that affects bone marrow.
“We’ve always been a tight-knit family but I would say in the last four years it’s magnified by 10.”
The interviewer describes how the conversation moved on but Mescal returned to the running rumour nervously before cracking a joke about it when he spotted a nearby book titled ‘London’s Hidden Walks’.
“Three volumes… I should take these for my running-away dates.”
Mescal also spoke about his work on a Denny Sausage advert when the topic of embarrassing performances came up: “That paid my rent for five months, so I’ll hear no Denny’s slander.”
