Paul Mescal is not old enough to think about retiring. It might feel as if he’s been around forever, but he’s only 29. Incredibly, this makes him younger than the official face of youth in Hollywood, Timothée Chalamet, who is 30.
True, the star of Hamnet is on the verge of joining his fellow awards-season veteran in the thirtysomething club, and a big birthday can concentrate the ageing mind. But the law of gainful employment still states that you’re not permitted to dream about sailing into the sunset until you’re at least 31.
Luckily, rumours of the Irish actor’s retirement have been greatly exaggerated, which is to say he has no plans to retire from the film industry and never did.
The man from Maynooth has, nevertheless, felt obliged this week to “clarify” and, in the inevitable media parlance, “break his silence” on the subject, which now threatens to follow him around until he actually does retire – or is retired – from his chosen occupation.
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Interviewed alongside Jessie Buckley, his Oscar-tipped Hamnet costar, on the red carpet at the Critics Choice Awards in Santa Monica, California, Mescal laughed and looked a tad sheepish as Variety, the Hollywood trade publication, asked him what the deal was with these retirement headlines.
“I couldn’t be further from retirement. Essentially, I’ve nothing to promote after Hamnet for two years. But, hear it first, I’m not retiring. I’m going to be busy for the next two years.”
He also told People magazine that he “would really lose my mind if I took two years off of my job”.
This last assertion is a pity, as I was beginning to think I had much in common with Mescal, beyond our mutual penchant for shorts.
I, too, am keen on the concept of “rationing” myself professionally so I don’t “resent the thing I love”. Like him, I also have “different priorities in my personal life that I want to attend to”, if only because the new season of The Traitors UK won’t watch itself.
But, unlike him, I’m not sure that voluntarily taking two years off work would pose any immediate threat to my sanity. It’s tough to say, but my guess is that it would improve it.
Mescal’s career seems in a pretty enviable place right now, which is perhaps why his original remark, made in an interview with the Guardian, about “learning that I don’t think I can go on doing it as much”, was described as “a bombshell disguised as an aside”.
The journalist then asked if he was talking about rationing himself. “I’m gonna have to start doing that. For sure,” he replied, before qualifying that “rationing doesn’t necessarily mean less” and adding that he misses being on stage. The word “retirement” was never mentioned in the piece, but it was in the headline.
The interview was a joint one with Josh O’Connor, whom he acts alongside in the upcoming The History of Sound. The in-demand British actor really is planning to take some time off this year, and if this puts him in a better frame of mind when he returns to his usual business of compelling performances, then everyone’s a winner.
But, as was abundantly clear from the start, the main thing Mescal intends to take a step back from is relentless project promotion, and that seems fair enough too. Lately he’s been as ubiquitous as, well, Shakespeare, the man he plays in Hamnet, with the film’s publicity campaign going on for so long now it has technically spanned two years.
“People will get a break from me and I’ll get a break from them,” he promised the Guardian with what I imagine was a subtle hint of yearning.
This is because once he’s finished with the awards-circuit marathon, in March – just another two months to go – he’ll be fully occupied “doing The Beatles”, meaning Sam Mendes’ quartet of biopics about the four members of the little-known band.
His role as Paul McCartney in these four films just might garner some attention – it’s hard to say – but they won’t be released until 2028, which is obviously ages away and more than enough time to replenish the energy reserves required for the spotlight.
Once more unto the breach, as good old Will Shakespeare once wrote.
As for retirement from the industry, that’s impossible for Mescal until he is middle-aged at least. He’s been cast in Merrily We Roll Along, Richard Linklater’s adaptation of Stephen Sondheim’s musical – which, shot on an occasional basis over a long timespan, is expected to be in production until 2040.
The story is told in reverse chronological order, meaning it will end with its characters further away from retirement than they have ever been.
Some days do feel like that.
