Paul Mescal hints at acting break: ‘I don’t think I can go on’

Paul Mescal is looking to be more like normal people.

The actor, 29, revealed he plans to step away from acting — but just for a little while.

“I’m five or six years into this now, and I feel very lucky,” Mescal told “The Guardian” in an interview published on Friday. “But I’m also learning that I don’t think I can go on doing it as much.”

Before Mescal makes his great escape from the spotlight, he is set to play Paul McCartney in Sam Mendes’ 2028 Beatles movie.

But first, he’s starring in the highly anticipated film “Merrily We Role Along” based on the 1981 musical from Stephen Sondheim and George Furth.

“Once I’ve finished promoting that, I hope nobody gets to see me until 2028 when I’m doing the Beatles,” he said. “People will get a break from me and I’ll get a break from them.”

Mescal landed his breakout role in 2020’s “Normal People.” Two years later, he was nominated for an Academy Award for the 2022 drama “Aftersun.”

“The Oscars brought the opportunity to celebrate that film in a way that [director] Charlotte [Wells] and myself had never anticipated,” he explained. “You don’t make something like Aftersun and think: ‘I know where we’ll be going in 2023!’ I doubt that will ever be topped for me, because it’s not the sort of film that usually gets recognized in that capacity.”

Now, Mescal is starring in the indie film “History of Sound,” where “two young men during World War I set out to record the lives, voices and music of their American countrymen,” per the synopsis.

Josh O’Connor acts alongside Mescal.

“It means learning that films like ‘The History of Sound’ take more out of the well,” he continued. “You can’t keep going back and expect to consistently deliver something you’re proud of. What that rationing looks like, I don’t know. I miss being on stage, so I might have a time when I’m only doing theatre for a couple of years. I also have different priorities in my personal life that I want to attend to.”

While shooting “History of Sound,” Mescal was fresh off “Gladiator II.”

“I was 90 kilos and I had eight weeks to get down to 78 kilos,” he recalled. “It was a real headf–k. I loved the process of making that film but ‘The History of Sound’ felt like home to me. It’s where I’m most comfortable. I want to make more films like that versus ones on the scale of ‘Gladiator II.’”

In 2024, Mescal got candid on wanting to make sure the Ridley Scott sequel was a success.

“I do feel the pressure, and I do feel the desire for this to make money,” Mescal told Variety at the time. “The box office needs a shot in the arm, and if films like ‘Gladiator II’ aren’t doing it, it would be concerning. So I do feel a responsibility.”

The “All of Us Strangers” actor first watched the 2000 film at age 13.

“I was at home with my dad,” Mescal said. “I feel like for a lot of dads it was a big film, like, ‘Come on, son, let’s watch ‘Gladiator!’ ”

Choosing to work on “Gladiator II” was an easy yes. “It was really just Ridley and ‘Gladiator,’ and I felt like I was ripe for this kind of big film,” he said.

“I played sports growing up; I know what it is to throw myself around. I look Roman,” he continued. “All of those things. And it’s Ridley Scott!”

The action-packed movie came out more than two decades after the events of the original “Gladiator.” In the sequel, Mescal plays the grown-up Lucius Verus II, the son of Russell Crowe’s character, Maximus, who ends up forced into slavery and becomes a gladiator to earn his freedom, much like his dad did in the first movie.

Denzel Washington portrayed Macrinus, an arms dealer and businessman well-known in the Roman Empire.

Meeting the Oscar winner, 71, was a dream come true for Mescal.

“Holy f–k, I’m in a scene with Denzel! It could have been overwhelming,” he reflected, “but I kind of set out in my head that I’m totally entitled to admire this man and see him as an idol, but I’ve got to protect myself from that when we’re working together. I’ve got to treat Denzel as I would any other actor.”