The Gladiator II star recounted the impact a ‘categorically untrue’ rumour that circulated on social media had on his family
Paul Mescal recently found himself at the centre of social media’s rumour mill and he has now confessed just how ‘devastating’ it proved to be for his family.
At the end of 2023, social media – especially TikTok – was awash with videos and memes that alleged the actor would take one-night stands for a walk in the park the next day before distracting them and running away. Variations of the rumour included that he would ask his conquests to look at a bird before hot-footing it in the other direction, with one video claiming to have captured ‘actual footage’ of him running away attracting over three million views.
His appearance on Chicken Shop Date with Amelia Dimoldenberg in January this year only added fuel to the fire, after he shared that his idea of a romantic date was “a good long walk”. “I love walking, a good long walk is romantic to me” he said during the interview. “Simple pleasures, I’m a simple man.”
Now, in an interview with GQ ahead of his starring role in Gladiator II, the 28-year-old star opened up about the impact the rumours – which he insists are “categorically untrue” – had on his family, particularly his mother Dearbhla.
“We [Mescal and his siblings] were looking at the videos and we were p****** ourselves at it. Categorically untrue. And we were laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing,” he began.
“And the one thing that upset me was that I was in the kitchen, I remember my mum looking at the videos and she was getting upset. Isn’t that devastating? I was like, Oh, it’s funny to us – my brother, me, my sister – because we know that this is the way the internet works.”
He continued: “It’s hilarious. If it was true, it’d be fucking bad, but as a rumour, it’s funny. Then I was like, Oh, if you’re a mother, her impulse is to come out and be like, ‘He wouldn’t do this.’ ”
Since his breakout role in BBC’s Normal People, an adaptation of the hit Sally Rooney novel, the Irish actor’s star has continued to rise. His most recent role will be in the Ridley Scott epic Gladiator II, with Mescal playing Lucius, the son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus.
