Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor, two of our buzziest contemporary actors, are leading queer romance “The History of Sound,” much to the delight of film Twitter. The long-awaited film was announced in 2021, with director Oliver Hermanus deeming both stars “two of the most promising actors of their generation” at the time.
Four years later, and that statement rings even more true today.
Mescal stars in the film as Lionel, who falls for his fellow music student David (O’Connor). The duo then set out to record the lives, voices, and music of World War I soldiers. The film is an adaptation of Ben Shattuck’s award-winning short story. And yes, Mescal sings in the role. “The History of Sound” will premiere at the Cannes Film Festival next month.
Director Hermanus (“Living”) recently told Vanity Fair that it is to the film’s benefit that production took so long to start amid the pandemic, financing issues, and the strikes. “Their lives [Mescal and O’Connor] were literally changing, and it was always this groupthink situation of, ‘Where can we find the time to force the universe to let us make this film?,’” Hermanus said. “We probably wouldn’t have been able to make this film when we wanted to, in 2022, because they weren’t the Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor that we now know today.”
As Mescal added, “How many times do you hear people who really try and get something made over five, 10, 15 years, and it just falls away? I remember feeling very lucky. Like, we have to enjoy this. Because we’ll come across other opportunities in our life where we love a script as much as this, and we just don’t get to get it made. The thing that I’m most proud about is that the feeling I had when I read the script for the first time is what I got when I saw the film for the first time.”
Mescal teased that the film has a “real sense of companionship” between the two lead characters, and that the drama stems from the “joy and loss that comes with the presence and absence of that.” Mescal said, “It’s not just about sex and the intensity of falling in love. It’s deeper than that.”
In addition to “The History of Sound,” Mescal will star in the four-part Beatles biopic as Paul McCartney. O’Connor will be in the third “Knives Out” feature (all we know is that he’s playing a priest, much like Mescal’s other queer drama co-star, “All of Us Strangers” actor Andrew Scott, did in “Fleabag”) and is leading Kelly Reichardt‘s latest, “The Mastermind,” which also will debut in competition at Cannes. Between “The History of Sound” and “The Mastermind,” O’Connor has two shots at being in a Palme d’Or winner this year. He also will make his Steven Spielberg debut in the auteur’s next project about UFOs.
“The History of Sound” will be released in theaters from MUBI, though a release date has not yet been set. Check out the first look below.
