Paul Mescal’s stellar 2020 will be capped off with the Hugo Boss Breakthrough Actor Of The Year award at the virtual GQ Men Of The Year Awards, it was revealed on Monday.
The Normal People actor, 24, celebrates the accolade with a new cover shoot for GQ Magazine, looking both suave and dishevelled in a shirt and tie.
The accompanying interview sees Paul reflect on his incredible rise to fame in 2020 thanks to his lead role in the smash hit TV adapatation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People.
What a year: Paul Mescal’s stellar 2020 will be capped off with the Hugo Boss Breakthrough Actor Of The Year award at the virtual GQ Men Of The Year Awards
Paul reveals that he recently got together with his co-star Daisy Edgar Jones to watch back the show together for the first time, after the series first aired during the spring lockdown.
‘We hadn’t actually watched it together, Daisy and I. Because of lockdown, we hadn’t done that,’ Paul explained to GQ.
‘So last week we got together and watched the whole thing through,’ revealing that the viewing party soon turned boozy.
‘We actually ended up playing a little drinking game: every time Connell wouldn’t complete a sentence or any time Marianne would make an emphatic statement that made Connell uncomfortable we did a shot,’ he said.
Smouldering: The Normal People actor celebrates the accolade with a new shoot for GQ Magazine , looking both suave and dishevelled
‘We ended up talking over most of it, just reflecting on particular days, costume changes, memories. It was very special to get to do that with her. The thing we shared – will always share – is so unique.’
Paul also explained in the interview how he only recently decided to focus all his attention on acting.
‘I really struggled with that decision: choosing one thing to focus on that I wouldn’t get utterly bored with,’ he explained. ‘Acting was something that I didn’t really know how to do but I could see how it would take a great deal of dedication.’
‘It was a team environment, but one with an almost hermitic lifestyle for the individual players – just going in and being totally absorbed by it. That really appealed.’
Rising stars: The accompanying interview sees Paul reflect on his incredible rise to fame in 2020 thanks to his lead role in Normal People alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones
The star decided to quit his other great passion, playing Gaelic football, and dedicate his time to auditions, explaining: ‘I played it on the sly for two years. I had already decided to give it up in my final year but then I got slapped pretty hard across the face and my jaw snapped.’
‘If sport was my thing on the side, I had to drop my thing on the side. No distractions.’
And there’s one actor of his generation that Paul has taken great inspiration from – Timothée Chalamet and in particular his Oscar nominated performance in the 2017 movie, Call Me By Your Name.
‘Timothée Chalamet just smashed it in that movie. He blew my mind, if I’m honest with you,’ gushed Paul. ‘I was so moved by it, it sort of shocked me.’
‘He is on another level and it just made me realise what a young actor, roughly the same age as me, could be capable of – the level I had to get up to.’
Pals: Paul reveals that he got together with his co-star Daisy recently to watch back the show together for the first time, after the series first aired during the spring lockdown
Paul has been announced as the recipient of the Hugo Boss Breakthrough Actor Of The Year award at this year’s virtual GQ Men Of The Year Awards.
Dylan Jones, Editor of GQ, said of the award: ‘The artists who have helped us get through two lockdowns by entertaining us have felt important – a crucial outlet, a way of escaping our world by entering theirs.’
‘GQ are proud to celebrate Paul Mescal, the emmy-nominated actor who became a heartthrob overnight and who’s performance in Normal People was stellar.’
The GQ Men Of The Year Awards 2020, now in its 23rd year, will honour the inspirational men and women who have shaped the world’s cultural landscape across entertainment, activism, style, sport and more in 2020.
This year, for the first time in British GQ history, the Men Of The Year ceremony in association with Hugo Boss will be held virtually. The full ceremony will be available to view via British GQ’s YouTube channel on Thursday 26 November 2020 at 8pm.
GQ’s January/February 2021 issue is available on newsstands from Friday 4 December.