Is Paul Mescal doomed by his own celebrity status? As the public’s reviews of Hamnet flooded in, one talking kept coming up: why is Paul Mescal wearing a tiny little earring? But the point still stands, and the point is this: Mescal didn’t feel like Shakespeare in the feature; he felt like Paul Mescal, in a period costume. Paul Mescal on the set of Gladiator 2 with Ridley Scott. Paul Mescal starred in 2022’s Academy Award-nominated Aftersun.