Saoirse Ronan Knew Paul Mescal Would Be A Star After Dennys Sausage Commercial

Paul Mescal’s star has been on the rise since his debut in Hulu’s adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People. With an Olivier Award win for his onstage performance in A Streetcar Named Desire, and an Oscar nomination for the emotionally bruising Aftersun, Mescal has proven himself a formidable, up-and-coming star. He’s got a busy few years ahead. From leading Ridley Scott’s Gladiator 2 to starring alongside Andrew Scott in the next Andrew Haigh film All of Us Strangers, and with Saoirse Ronan in Foe directed by Garth Davis, his filmography continues to offer greater challenges. It’s amazing to think he’s only been in the mainstream since 2020.

In an interview with Harper’s Bazaar, he talks about fame and his ongoing relationship with it. He’s succinct in discussing the negative aspects, like speculation regarding his love life (notably the online reaction following reports of his and singer Phoebe Bridgers’s breakup), saying:

“It’s nobody else’s business and should never be commented on because it’s indecent. And it’s unkind,” he says. “Honest answer, it makes me angry. … It’s the entitlement to the information that people expect that just drives me mad.”

Despite that attention, it seems as though he’s retained his own sense of self. Scott, when asked about Mescal for the interview, said:

“There’s only so much acting a person can do. I believe who you are always comes through in some way, your attitude toward something. And that’s what I think he has: just this incredible, gentle, intelligent Irish soul … It sounds like an unusual thing to say, that somebody who’s at [his] stage of life is just interested in creating a body of work, but he really, genuinely is.”

However, it’s his co-star Ronan who had the best anecdote, one that can’t help but sound like friendly sarcasm, as she nods to a performance that gained him local attention.

“The first time I saw Paul act was in a commercial for Denny’s sausages in Ireland,” Ronan recalls. “He’ll kill me for mentioning it, but—I’m not actually joking—that was the first time I went, ‘Oh, who’s that guy?’ He’s really good.”

She’s not wrong. He’s really good in that commercial.