After several years of almost constant work and bourgeoning movie stardom, Paul Mescal revealed he’s ready to step out of the spotlight until 2028 when Sam Mendes’ four-part Beatles biopic arrives.
In a new interview with The Guardian, conducted alongside his History of Sound co-star Josh O’Connor, Mescal spoke about “rationing” himself and his workload, especially after he finishes his awards season campaign for Hamnet.
“Once I’ve finished promoting that, I hope nobody gets to see me until 2028 when I’m doing the Beatles,” Mescal quipped. “People will get a break from me, and I’ll get a break from them.”
In just a few short years, Mescal has become one of the busiest and most scrutinized actors in the world. Since his breakthrough in the 2020 series Normal People, he’s led indie darlings like Aftersun and All of Us Strangers, as well as blockbusters like Gladiator II. In 2025, he starred in two films, The History of Sound and Hamnet, with the latter receiving significant Oscar buzz.
While Mescal said he felt “very lucky” about how his career has shaped up, he said he’s also “learning that I don’t think I can go on doing it as much.” In saying he was interested in “rationing” himself, Mescal qualified that that “doesn’t necessarily mean less,” but “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 Mescal acknowledged the fear of taking a beat and getting left behind, he highlighted a greater concern: “I don’t want to resent the thing I love,” he said, referring to the work of acting. “This sounds bold, but I’d rather not be on the train if that is the choice.”
Compared to the last couple, Mescal’s next few years do look pretty bare. He’ll be playing Paul McCartney in Mendes’ Beatles movies, and his only other film project at the moment is Richard Linklater’s Merrily We Roll Along adaptation, which is being filmed over the course of two decades (to match the narrative scope of the celebrated Stephen Sondheim musical). Mescal will also get the chance to return to the stage in 2027: He’s been tapped to lead two plays at the National’s Lyttelton Theatre in London, Tom Murphy’s A Whistle in the Dark and Arthur Miller’s Death of a Salesman.
