Paul Mescal Dishes On Online Rumor That Upset His Mom

Paul Mescal has realized that his mom may not be able to find humor in internet rumors like he does.

During an interview with GQ published Tuesday, reporter Gabriella Paiella asked Mescal about a rumor spread via TikTok videos that the actor would take his dates on walks in the park the day after a one-night stand. Then, allegedly, he’d abruptly run away from them.

The “All of Us Strangers” actor laughed and said: “Fucking hell!”

Mescal said that the rumor had spread online around the holidays last year, and recalled he and his two siblings couldn’t contain their laughter.

“We were looking at the videos and we were pissing ourselves at it,” he said. “Categorically untrue. And we were laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing.”

But the Oscar nominee said his mother was not so amused by the online gossip about her son.

“The one thing that upset me was that I was in the kitchen, I remember my mum looking at the videos and she was getting upset. Isn’t that devastating?” he said. “I was like, Oh, it’s funny to us—my brother, me, my sister—because we know that this is the way the internet works. It’s hilarious.”

“If it was true, it’d be fucking bad, but as a rumor, it’s funny,” he continued. “Then I was like, oh, if you’re a mother, her impulse is to come out and be like, ‘He wouldn’t do this.’”

Mescal has talked about the highs and lows of fame before.

During another interview with GQ back in 2022, the actor reflected on a time he was sexualized by a stranger while he was out with friends in Ireland. He said a woman approached him and said that she had taken a screenshot of him from a naked scene in Hulu’s 2020 miniseries “Normal People.”

He told the publication he was “really angry” and thought the woman was being “fucking rude.”

Last year, Mescal reflected on a more fun and light-hearted side of fame, during an appearance on “Jimmy Kimmel Live.”

He said he brought his parents to the Oscars earlier that year, joking that his mom made a connection with a seat-filler at the ceremony, who held his seat while he left the audience to use the restroom and grab a drink.

“When you leave, these brilliant seat-fillers run in, and my mom became very close with my seat-filler,” he said with a laugh.