Richard Linklater sits in awe of Paul Mescal during production on “Merrily We Roll Along.”
Linklater is adapting the Stephen Sondheim musical across two decades, with Mescal playing the composer character Franklin Shepard. Ben Platt and Beanie Feldstein are also in the cast.
Linklater told The Times UK that Mescal is “transcendent” in the role, which he took on still as a rising star — in other words, before his Oscar nomination for “Aftersun.”
“He’s just a transcendent talent,” Linklater said of Mescal, “and he can really sing…I’m just so happy we connected right before he went supernova.”
Mescal previously showed off his singing range in the musical “Carmen.” He also presented his stage acting skills during a West End revival of “A Streetcar Named Desire.”
“I just love it,” Mescal told British Vogue of acting on stage. “It’s so gratifying – it’s a very difficult thing to commit to because the schedule is so grueling but, ultimately, it feels like an elixir. I think it’s so important, and I’d be a lesser actor if I didn’t give myself the time to do it. I think it’s rare to come across a film script that is as good as Arthur Miller or Tennessee Williams. So, if someone’s giving you an opportunity to do that, or do Shakespeare, I think you’d be crazy not to do it. So, there are plans to go back in the not-too-distant future.”
As for his singing ability, Mescal confirmed that yes, he is indeed using his own voice for the film.
“The thing that’s different about this is that it’s obviously a pre-existing Sondheim musical. I love musicals. I’m singing — the whole shebang,” Mescal said. “We’ll be sporadically shooting that over the next 20 years, which is like… it sounds so bizarre even coming out of my own mouth. We’re still in the infancy of it to be totally honest.”
Mescal previously quipped to Esquire UK that hopefully he can still stand to watch himself onscreen in 20 years once “Merrily We Roll Along” is completed.
“I think I’m going to spend the next 20 years regretting choices that I made in some sequences,” Mescal said in 2023, “and then forgetting about others and being like, ‘Oh, fuck! We shot that in 2035!’ That’s crazy. […] I have no idea where I’m going to be. Hopefully still fucking alive. I don’t know.”
