Robert Kojder chats with Hamnet star Paul Mescal…
At this point, if Paul Mescal is in a film, you might as well bring the tissues to the theater. Tear ducts will open up; there’s no way around it. Somehow, Hamnet, in which he plays a grieving William Shakespeare channeling his pain into inspiration for Hamlet, might be the most devastating of a recent run that includes heart-destroyers such as Aftersun and All of Us Strangers. It’s also a film about art’s power to facilitate healing.
Acting alongside an astonishing Jessie Buckley as William Shakespeare’s significant other, Agnes, Hamnet is certainly unthinkably sad, but not without hope and, as mentioned, mending. It should be no surprise that Paul Mescal is once again tremendous at playing such a depressed character.
Before the release of Oscar-winner Chloe Zhao’s Hamnet and full-steam-ahead into its awards consideration run, Paul Mescal took part in a virtual roundtable with various journalists to field one question from each of us. With such limited time, I chose not to try for a deep conversation about the film and went with a question that, while tough (he seemed to like it and had to think about it before answering), was also fun and related to the film’s core themes. Enjoy the brief interview below:
It’s nice to meet you.
You too!
I love your work. There’s a heavy emphasis here on grieving and the power of healing through art. Can you talk about a time where art similarly helped heal or helped you process something in your life?
Oooohh! [He thinks to himself for roughly 10 seconds] I remember going through a breakup and watching Blue Valentine, but it wasn’t the first time I watched it. It was a rewatch, and I was like… oh, this is a different movie. Do you know when you rewatch a film from a different context in your own life, and it’s like you’re watching a film brand new again?
Absolutely!
That was the first time I’ve had that where it felt like art is actually dependent on the receiver or the viewers’ position in life. We could watch the same film, and one of us could be incredibly moved, while the other could be incredibly bored. And that’s actually not down to the filmmakers, but down to the audience. Of course, you can make a very boring film, and everybody can be unanimously bored. But I learned in that rewatch of Blue Valentine that the context I was entering the film with was totally different, and it moved me in a totally different way.
I love it! Blue Valentine is a great movie, and Hamnet is also incredible. Thank you for your time.
Thank you!
Hamnet is set for release in the US on November 26th.
