Paul Mescal 'Determined to Absolutely Dominate Show Business' (EXCL)
Paul Mescal has built quite the ego given his current star power, according to an insider, who exclusively tells Life & Style he’s swaggering around like the self appointed King of Hollywood while blowing a fortune on designer clothes, fast cars and anything else that strikes his fancy.
“Paul is operating with the full and total expectation that Gladiator II will come out, be a massive hit, and cement his status as Hollywood’s newest A-list leading man, just like the first movie did for Russell Crowe 25 years ago,” the source says.
Paul, 28, is stepping into a Gladiator leading-man “lineage” of sorts as he prepares for the November release of the expected smash sequel. Russell, now 60, was in the Irish actor’s shoes a generation ago, starring as the next big thing alongside former hunk and screen legend Oliver Reed.
Oliver, who played a mentor figure to Russel’s character in the original Ridley Scott flick, died at age 61 in 1999, just before the first Gladiator movie was set to premiere in 2000.
With the upcoming film expected to break big at the box office, Paul has been prepping himself to become Hollywood’s next big thing, which includes spending sprees and wild nights out.
“He’s not showing any doubt whatsoever about this. He’s like a kid on the night before Christmas, but with less self-control,” the insider says. “Paul is already spending like a drunken sailor, especially on his favorite vice – high-end, cutting-edge luxury fashion.”
The actor’s “relaxed personal style” hasn’t gone unnoticed, as GQ notes Paul’s fashion sense “has endeared him as a tongue-wagging internet boyfriend.”
The Normal People star has been working with stylist Felicity Kay for years perfecting his look on and off the red carpet. She told British Vogue in February 2023 their style strategy is focused on “classic, great tailoring but subtly subverted. A little rough around the edges, tactile and contemporary.”
Most Hollywood A-listers are no strangers to professional stylists, but for up and coming actors like Paul, the source says it’s a near necessity to make a statement at premieres.
“People get the logic: he’s got a lot of premieres coming up and he needs to look incredible on every red carpet he hits,” the insider tells. “But you can go overboard with that stuff, and in trying to become The World’s Most Fashionable Man, Paul is.”
Overboard may be a word best used to describe the Aftersun actor. He’s made a dizzying rise from a relatively unknown actor to the next big thing in just a few years – but is carrying some baggage along the way.
After The Sun reported that Paul had been getting up to some wild antics at Glastonbury Festival in July 2024, reportedly taking a few inhales from a key after dunking it into a bag containing an unknown substance out in the open, a different source told Life & Style, “There’s a growing consensus that Paul’s old habits, and his party-boy lifestyle in general, are going to be his biggest obstacles.”
The first source agrees that the rising star should try to keep himself in check, saying, “The big time clothes are in service to an ego that is even bigger, and Paul is a man determined to absolutely dominate show business in the next ten years.”