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The Guardian - UK
The Guardian - UK
Comment
Adrian Chiles

MYSTERIOUS: Everything about paul mescal is irresistible with one exception - You Need To See This

Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s film Hamnet.
Paul Mescal as William Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao’s film Hamnet. Photograph: 2025 Focus Features

I want to believe in reincarnation because I want to come back as Paul Mescal. What it must be like to be irresistible. I’m sure it gets wearing, but I’d still like to give it a try, just for research purposes. Not so much for the carnal stuff, but for the way every word he utters is taken to be as beautiful as he is. Intoxicated by their admiration, his admirers leap headfirst into the still waters of his pronouncements apparently certain of hidden depths thereunder.

So it has been with the reaction to how he comforted his director when she confessed, in so many words, that she couldn’t always grasp what Shakespeare was on about. We’ve all been there. At least I have. There there, quoth Mescal: “Listen, if Shakespeare is performed right, you don’t have to understand what they’re saying. You feel it in the body, the language is written like that.”

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