Paul Mescal on Best Actor Oscar Nomination for Aftersun & Meeting Nicole Kidman in His Underpants

You know our next guest from the very popular Hulu series, Normal People. He played a people on that. Now he's nominated for an Oscar for Best Actor for his performance in the movie After Sun. You know, we could get you singing lessons if you wanted to learn to sing. Trying to tell me I can't sing? No, I'm just saying anyone can learn if they put in the work. Stop doing that. Doing what? Offering to pay for something when I know you don't have any money. OK, come on. After Sun is available digitally now. Very good to have you here. Did I do it? Did I pronounce your name correctly? Spot on. Good. Thank you. I've been working on it all day because people want to say Mezcal, right? Yeah, I mean, it's cooler and I should probably adapt to Mezcal, but I'm stuck with Mezcal. Yeah, you could be like Tila Tequila, you know, by changing your name. Yeah, it'd really be something. Mezcal's Mezcal. I think if you want to make that switch, you've got to do it before the Oscars. I'm going to do it now. I'm changing it to Mezcal as of right now. OK, here we go. Good. All right. You're most happy. Yeah, I'm happy. By the way, I want to tell you something. So today we have a little meeting. We talk about the guests that are on the show. And one of the guys is like, is Paul like a like a like a popular with the with the ladies? And my wife's like, yes, yes. Like she's nodding way too much. I was like, all right. With the head, will you calm down already? And then sure enough, I mean, there's young ladies here that brought your the book from normal people. I don't know why they brought the book, but you didn't write that book, right? I didn't write that book. I mean, you're on the show. Yeah, yeah. And that's did you read the book? Many times, many times. OK, all right. That's something, I guess. Yeah. I mean, thank you for bringing the book. By the way, that young actor who plays your daughter. Yeah, the movie. She's just great. She's what is her name? Frankie Corio. Frankie Gore. She's going to take over the world. So just yeah, she's she'd never been in anything before. No, it was her first film. How old is she? She was 11 when we shot. She's 12 now. And it's just well, getting to like it's like the weird thing of like working. They say don't work with kids or animals. But like I I mean, I can only say that working with kids is great. You had fun with I had like you never expect. It's the weird thing of like as an adult, you never really get to hang out with like kids who aren't like your cousins. Yeah. And we were working like so closely together. And it was like the last thing that I was expecting was to become friends with a 12 year old. You continue to like a friendship relationship with her. We're really close now. She's like she was messaging me the other day when I presented with Sendai at the site and she was like, you presented with a goddess that got lots of brownie points. Oh, she was very, very excited about the Oscars. Did she even know like any of this stuff? She's kind of like playing it cool. She's like, yeah, you're going over the Oscars. That's really cool. But when am I going to see you next? I see. Yeah, I see. That's nice. That's nice. Who will you bring to the Oscars with you? My mom's coming with. All right. OK, so mom's coming. Yeah. Clap for mom. She's great. Yeah, she is. She's so excited. Did she pick out a dress yet? She is. Did you help her with that? No, I wouldn't trust myself with that. There's more important people who decide on what she should wear. But you have to worry about your mother. I do a little bit. It's not so much mingling. She's really good at that. It's more so when like anybody. So she came with me. Her and my dad came to the BAFTAs. And any time anyone would mention their partner or loved ones in a speech or got remotely emotional, she would just go. Oh, really? Yeah. And I was like, my mother is one of the most spectacular women in the world. But it's the pressure of like, you don't know these people. You can't like she would cry watching the like Kardashians at home. I see. Oh, she would. That's that's where she's. Oh, you guys have the Kardashians out there. My mom has it. I. Yeah. Yeah. Holy cow. That's really spread like a virus, hasn't it? Yeah. You got a lot of fellow Irishman at the Oscars this year. I mean, it's like like I think like 30 percent of the nominees are from Ireland. You know each other. We know each other by like not not really. But now is the kind of like award season has kind of brought you together. Brought us together. Yeah. Like I knew Martin McDonagh a little bit and getting to know Colin and Brandon and Kerry. It's like I don't know. It's just it's bananas. It's like there's so many of us. Yeah, there are. It's like all of the Irish actors. Yeah, I know. It's weird because, yeah, we don't like at your at the BAFTAs. There are no Americans even allowed. You can't even come to the show. Yeah. Maybe next year. Sorry. And yet I doubt it. Really, you know, and through all this, with all this craziness being nominated for an Oscar, which obviously is something you didn't expect was going to happen. You've been doing a play in London. Yeah. And and now because you're nominated, are people like paying special attention to the play or celebrities coming to visit you at the play? It's been yeah, it's been a like pretty starry backstage. We had a we had Nicole Kidman came to the play. Oh, wow. Yeah, it was pretty. How does that work? Does she come before or after the show? It works as in like somebody in the cast spots them in the audience is like, holy. Oh, you didn't know. No, I didn't know she was in. And then she came backstage and I was sharing a dressing room with Ralph and Eduardo and we're getting changed. And like we're in our underwear and like I'm not even lying. This happened. We hear a knock on the door and we thought it was like the stage manager or something. And I go to like open the door and it's like Nicole Kidman standing there in like sweaty underwear. Right. And then like you think the next smart step is like put on some trousers. But there's something like incredibly undignified about the act of, you know, it's not like a look. You want to be not like bent over. Exactly. Yeah. So then like you kind of half pull on your trousers and you're kind of chatting about the play and you're like, oh, and you're like, thanks for coming. The door shuts and you're just turning to each other like what the hell just happened? Yeah. Yeah. When Nicole Kidman is in her seat at during a play, is she talking to the screen about the magic of film? Is that very good? Or is that just for the thing? I think that's just for the thing. Yeah. Do you have a speech prepared for the Oscars? I, I mean, I should prepare when just just in case because I had to give a speech before where I wasn't expecting it and ended up just, oh, you had saying words. You had to wing it. No sense. Yeah, I winged it. Well, at the very least, you need to write down a list of the people that you want to mention, because then if you forget somebody, it's and they tell you, don't worry, you can go and go to the thank you cam. And then it's, you know, online for 11 people to see it. But you don't you want to know. I want to like thank the if it happens, thank the people that deserve to be. Yeah. Should we thank them now? Just in case. Just in case. Thanks, Bob. You think, mom, that's it? Yeah. What about dad doesn't get it? Thanks, mom and dad. Or dad. Yeah, dad. Yeah. So dad doesn't get to come to the show. Dad is coming. But I think he's like sitting up in the nose. Really? Yeah, it's pretty savage. It's like you get one person. And mom had it like locked down for a long time. Well, yeah. I mean, sure. You came out of her like, you know. Yeah. I mean, you came out of him, too, technically. It's a real nesting egg situation. But I mean, I think one involves more pain. For sure. Yeah. I mean, I hope so. Yeah. Yeah. So, well, we've covered a lot of territory covered. Yeah. Well, I look forward to seeing you at the Oscars and congratulations. That's just fantastic. Thanks very much. Very well deserved. The movie, if you haven't seen it, but you see it is called At the Sun. It's on digital platforms now. Paul Meskel, everybody. We'll be back with Paliukis.