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“Gladiator II” actor Paul Mescal, 29, said Hollywood’s view of male leads is evolving. He made the comment while promoting his new gay romance, History of Sound, at the Cannes Film Festival.
“It’s ever shifting,” he said during a press conference for the film, per Variety. “I think maybe in cinema we’re moving away from the traditional, alpha, leading male characters. I don’t think the film is defining or attempting to redefine masculinity, I think it is being very subjective to the relationship between [the movie’s characters] Lionel and David.”
Mescal made similar comments on modern masculinity last year to Sky News: “There’s a sort of crisis in masculinity I think at the moment and what it means to be a man,” Mescal told Sky News at the time. “We have all these things within us, there’s no one way of being, there just isn’t, and sometimes the people who are the most outwardly macho in some ways, are the people who aren’t going to be there for you emotionally.”
History of Sound follows two young men, Lionel (Paul Mescal) and David (Josh O’Connor), who fall in love while recording the voices and stories of fellow Americans during WWI. Mescal, who plays a gay character, has previously defended being cast in such roles despite being straight.
“It depends [on] who’s in charge of telling the story,” the actor told The Sunday Times. “The issue is that there have been so many queer performances in cinema that have been offensive, but that’s because the filmmakers and the actors have been careless.”
Mescal took offense to suggestions that History of Sound has similarities to another gay romance film, Brokeback Mountain:
Paul Mescal says comparing his gay romance “The History of Sound” to “Brokeback Mountain” is “lazy and frustrating.”
“When I look at ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ it’s dealing with the idea of repression. This film is fundamentally pointed in the opposite direction.” pic.twitter.com/uSEQMwyodN
— Variety (@Variety) May 22, 2025
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