Hollywood actor Paul Mescal has shared his astonishment at the level of “agency” he possesses as a performer in the industry.
Early Career and Passion Projects
The Hamnet star has engaged in passion projects early on in his career, attributing this to his clear-minded approach to the industry, as reported by ‘Female First UK’.
Paul remarked to Collider, “I think the thing that has surprised me is that you have more agency as an actor than you think you do if you know what films you want to make. I’ve always assumed that there’s this kind of success, and then you are suddenly in ‘Fast and Furious 12’. And it was weird, those things never came my way, actually, because I never really went looking for them.”
Control and Access in Filmmaking
He elaborated, “That’s what I mean by the control you have. If you know what you want to make, and you know who you want to work with, it’s a wild privilege because you have access. You can set up a meeting with Chloe Zhao in the mountains in Telluride and have a conversation, and that’s really exciting, but it also feels like you have agency. Because I was always afraid that the concept of Hollywood takes that agency away, and I’m sure it does for some actors.”
Globalized Hollywood
At 29, Paul Mescal believes that “Hollywood actors” are now more global than ever before. He mentioned, “When you don’t grow up in the ecosystem of that, like I grew up in Maynooth, it’s not like growing up in London and having actors and the industry around you. I suppose being an actor in London, to me, feels the same as being an actor in Hollywood.”
He added, “I think the world is kind of becoming more globalised, and it feels like you can be a ‘Hollywood actor,’ in inverted commas, kind of anywhere in the world now, which is cool.”