Paul Mescal: Movies ‘Moving Away’ From ‘Alpha’ Male Leads

Irish actor Paul Mescal is reflecting on masculinity in film, saying he thinks the industry is “moving away” from the typical alpha male roles.

Mescal stars alongside Josh O’Connor in the gay romance “The History of Sound,” playing musicians who travel through New England in the summer of 1919 to record the folk songs of their rural countrymen. Speaking at a press conference Wednesday for the film at Cannes, Mescal shared his thoughts on the cinema and gender roles.

“It’s ever shifting,” he said, according to 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 [their characters] Lionel and David.”