On a midsummer evening in London's Victoria Park, the sun is expending its final burst of energy. The emerald lawn stretches as far as the eye can see, an oasis of green in the city, a vision of-ah, shit, it's starting to rain.
Paul Mescal is unfazed. He guides us under a sturdy tree, where a canopy of leaves protects us from the worsening showers, the air thick with petrichor. Mescal, reigning king of earthy and emotional heartthrobs, lounges out on the grass like some kind of Impressionist painting.
Very rarely in life does it crystallize in the actual moment that a not-insignificant number of people would kill-I mean, commit actual human murder-to be in your shoes.
To get to the park, we've power walked along Regent's Canal, one of the Irish actor's favored running routes since he put down roots in London. The canal is lined with houseboats, their inhabitants grilling or having a drink on deck. Labradors playing fetch belly flop into the water. The whole tableau is almost illegally charming.
Though Mescal has, in 2024, done to shorts inseams around the world what global warming has done to sea levels, today he's wearing full-length jeans, a salmon Patagonia long-sleeve shirt, and black Adidas Sambas. He has a soft mullet haircut, shaggy facial hair, heavy-lidded blue eyes, and a nose that could not be more Roman if it were wearing a toga and refusing to pick up its city's trash. He sports, per usual, a small hoop in one ear. In a few days' time, Mescal will begin filming Chloé Zhao's adaptation of the best-selling 2020 novel Hamnet, in which he portrays another famous man with a dangly earring: William Shakespeare.
"My right ear was pierced, so I had to get this one pierced for Shakespeare. In the portraiture, it's on the left side, he explains. I was like, Are you fucking joking?" (He obliged.)
Denne historien er fra November 2024-utgaven av GQ US.
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Denne historien er fra November 2024-utgaven av GQ US.
Start din 7-dagers gratis prøveperiode på Magzter GOLD for å få tilgang til tusenvis av utvalgte premiumhistorier og 9000+ magasiner og aviser.
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SHABOOZEY THE BIG SHA BANG
Shaboozey spent months at the tippy-top of the charts with a hit song about dealing with hard times the easy way: by hitting the bar. He sang on a couple songs with Beyoncé too. So we asked the one and only SHANIA TWAIN to help country's biggest new star make sense of his explosive year.
HANNAH EINBINDER BORN STANDING UP
With her star turn on Hacks, the comic turned actor has established herself as one of Hollywood's most exciting young talents-much to her own surprise.
Katt Williams The Man Who Opened The Portal
In January, the comic delivered an instantly iconic podcast interview that threw pop culture into crisis-and seemed to predict all manner of messy celebrity gossip to come. At home on his farm, Williams explains why he said what he said— and why he'd do it again, and again, and again....
JOHN DAVID & MALCOLM WASHINGTON A NEW HOLLYWOOD DYNASTY
The Washington brothers built their careers apart—until an irresistible project drew them together. In The Piano Lesson, they tackle a father's thorny legacy.
FUTURE & METRO BOOMIN'S HISTORIC Hit STREAK
What happens when the best rapper alive reunites with the hottest producer of the moment? You get a back-to-back-to-back run unlike any since the Beatles.
PHARRELL WILLIAMS Designer of the Year
Riding along from Paris to Hollywood to New York with the Louis Vuitton *men's creative director, whose prolific and often prophetic contributions to fashion, film, and music have once again thrust him to the center of the pop culture Venn diagram.
JOHN MULANEY. KID GORGEOUS GROWS UP
After immortalizing the whirlwind of the past four yearsrelapse, intervention, recovery-in his awardwinning standup special, John Mulaney has emerged as one of the most popular comedians on earth. For his next trick, he's embracing his surprising new role as a suburban dad.
DWAYNE JOHNSON THE WORLD'S BIGGEST Actor
It's hard for Dwayne Johnson to hide. Wherever he goes, there he is― as conspicuous out in the world as he is on the silver screen. But after two decades of playing a version of himself in huge movies, suddenly Dwayne Johnson is ready to do something entirely new: vanish.
How the WNBA Became the Most Fun, Complicated, and Exciting League in Sports
Caitlin Clark! A'ja Wilson! Angel Reese! This year, women's hoops emerged as a dominant popcultural force. But the road to sports-league supremacy has been long and winding. This is the inside story of how the W finally broke through.
A Companion for Your Wrist
Audemars Piguet's new release with artist Brian Donnelly, a.k.a. KAWS, brings high-art hype to the world of pop-watch collabs.
