At the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, while promoting his new romance The History of Sound, Paul Mescal did what he does best, dropped a quiet truth bomb. When asked what playing Lionel – a Kentucky-born singer who falls in love with fellow musician David (played by The Crown’s Josh O’Connor) – taught him about love, Mescal didn’t hesitate.
“Love is a very complicated – what’s the thing, Andrew Scott’s speech in ‘Fleabag’ about love at the end at the wedding. That’s what I think about,” Mescal, whose currently dating Gracie Abrams, said.
“It’s a very hard thing to pin down. What I found so moving about the screenplay is that it’s never really described in words, it’s described in actions and things you don’t see… That’s something I’ve learned in my own life, kindness is wildly underrated in romantic relationships and should be celebrated.” Amen to that.
What Is The History of Sound About?
In Oliver Hermanus’s period drama, which premiered in competition at Cannes, Mescal’s character Lionel falls into a tender and complicated relationship with David, a conservatory student from a wealthy family. Set against the backdrop of 1917 America and later the trauma of war, The History of Sound is less about sweeping declarations and more about intimacy – spoken in glances, gestures, and unsaid things. It’s a story of what might have been, and what was.
“The chemistry, I suppose, is real,” Mescal said of working with O’Connor. “It felt like going to a friend’s house after school. That’s what it felt like going to work.” It’s no surprise then that kindness – the act of choosing softness even when the world is hard – was at the heart of his takeaway from the role.
Is Paul Mescal Still Dating Gracie Abrams?
Mescal and singer-songwriter Gracie Abrams have kept their relationship relatively private since rumours first swirled in 2023. But over the past year, their appearances together – from low-key London strolls to red carpets in Cannes – suggest they’re very much together. And now, we know the secret to their love. Kindness, actually.
