Paul Mescal Didn’t Love Dancing for Hamnet

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Irish actor Paul Mescal takes on the role of William Shakespeare in the new emotional drama ‘Hamnet’ co-starring Jesse Buckley and directed by Chloé Zhao.     Speaking from the UK Premiere at the BFI London Film Festival Gala, Paul discussed working on the film, and the struggle of staying in the moment but also taking part in dance breaks with the young cast members.     Already tipped to be an awards season favourite, Hamnet in expected out in cinemas in early 2026. Report by Burtonj. Like us on Facebook at http://www.facebook.com/itn and follow us on Twitter at http://twitter.com/itn

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00:00Emotional gymnastics, dodgy dad dancing.

00:04I think it was after Hamlet's death we died.

00:07****, but yeah.

00:17Hello, how's it going?

00:19I loved hearing about the cast interviews talking about the dance breaks and the dance

00:24Fridays on this scene, and I loved talking to the young cast about it.

00:26However, because it's a tear-jerker of a film as well, have you got some really strange

00:32memories of incredibly highs and lows on the same day?

00:34Look, I'm going to be honest, I was very grateful at the end that Chloe would do it,

00:40but at the time I was like, this is like emotional gymnastics that I don't really feel

00:47comfortable with a camera rolling and me doing dodgy dad dancing, but I think at some point

00:53they'll see the light of day, or hopefully not, or I'll get to see them at some point.

00:58Which song or which Friday dance breaks?

01:00There was Thriller was in there, that sticks out to me as a pretty,

01:07I think it was after Hamlet's death we died.

01:09****, but yeah.

01:12Yeah, what a wild ride.

01:14Exactly, exactly.

01:14I'm not going to let you move on, thank you so much for your time, appreciate it.

01:16It was kind of one of those times where I shamelessly was putting myself

01:24in position for a film where I was like, I really think this would work,

01:28and I'm very glad that Chloe agreed to it.

01:30Yeah, thank you.

01:31Yeah.

01:32And just very quickly, obviously this is something that's garnering a lot of awards,

01:36but it's not something that you could do a job for, but it might be nice to have that the film's been well-resed.

01:41Yeah, I mean it's like, it's kind of something that's out of your hands when you're making it,

01:45but if it does correlate to something it's correlating to, an appetite for audiences to like,

01:50want to talk about it, and like what will be, will it be, but I'm like definitely,

01:56I'm just proud that people are recognizing the film that we made,

01:59and not, they're not seeing a different film, you know, that's always the great fear,

02:03but we seem to be, yeah, the film's doing great.

02:11I mean, it's Chloe Zhao, it's Charlotte Wells, it's Anna and Celia, like they're brilliant,

02:21brilliant directors, they're the scripts that I wanted to do.

02:25There probably is an intentionality because it's like, I think, lucky to be coming from a generation

02:30where there's a certain consciousness towards that, but it has to do with their talent first

02:36and foremost, and not gender, I would say.

02:40Lovely, lovely to meet you, Paul, I'm Joy from Viphoek, can I ask what it was like working with a British

02:46independent film-making legend, Emily Watson, how's your plan?

02:49I mean, it's the second time, we did God's Creatures together.

02:52Yes, of course.

02:52It's the second time that Emily's played my mother, and I hope, I just, I think she's like,

02:58she's a giant in, not just like, like, obviously independent cinema, but like,

03:03she's just one of the great working actors today, and I would love to, we should do like,

03:10a trifecta of Emily playing my mum again, or something else.

03:13Let's make it happen.

03:14Yeah.

03:15Thank you so much, Paul.

03:16All right, thanks guys.

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