Before breaking into the acting world, Paul Mescal played Gaelic football competitively, and perhaps it’s his background as an athlete that has made him such an effective participant in film and TV sex scenes. In one response to “All of Us Strangers,” EW’s reviewer writes, “Scott and Mescal have electric chemistry; their love scenes are sweaty, intimate, and visceral … it’s sheer bliss to see these two objects of the internet’s affection, who also happen to be acting powerhouses, loving up on each other.”
It’s always nice to see Mescal receiving the attention he deserves for his work, but real fans know that the actor has been turning in electric performances in intimate onscreen moments since his breakout role in “Normal People,” a show that was dubbed “the raunchiest ever BBC show.” In the mini-series, which was later released on Hulu, Mescal plays Connell, a well-liked jock who has a complex sexual relationship with Marianne (Daisy Edgar-Jones), one of his less popular former high school classmates. Connell struggles with emotional intimacy, but his relationship with Marianne is consistently physical — of the six-hour run time, 41 minutes are devoted to sex scenes, and the show features so many intimate moments that Marie Claire ranked them all.
While promoting the series on “The Late Show With Stephen Colbert,” Mescal admitted he had to caution his family about watching parts of the show. But as far as filming went, he says, “We had an incredibly supportive team behind us that made those kinds of scenes feel the least awkward they could possibly feel.”
