After Paul Mescal and Daisy Edgar-Jones filmed the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, they were catapulted to practically overnight fame in 2020. In the years since, the two actors’ Hollywood careers have taken off. Mescal has snagged prominent roles in Aftersun, All of Us Strangers, and the upcoming Gladiator II, while Edgar-Jone has starred in Where the Crawdads Sing, Under the Banner of Heaven, and the new film Twisters. One thing about them hasn’t changed in the ensuing years, however: They remain close offscreen. Edgar-Jones told Variety in July 2024 that Mescal “is one of my lifetime best friends.”
Fans grew infatuated with their chemistry after Normal People, and the co-stars went viral in May 2024 when Edgar-Jones admitted that filming the series, in which they played on-off couple Marianne and Connell, made her fall “in love with Paul...as a friend.”
In reality, the two are just good friends. Edgar-Jones has been romantically linked to photographer Ben Seed since September 2023, while Mescal was last publicly linked to Phoebe Bridgers. Reports of Mescal and Bridgers’ breakup came out in December 2022, and Mescal told Vanity Fair in February 2023 that he has made a choice not to discuss his relationship status to protect his privacy.
Of the gossip around who he is (or isn’t) dating, he told Vanity Fair, “The temptation still exists to be like, ‘Shut the fuck up. This is my life. This is what’s going on. Or this is what’s not going on.’ But moving forward as much as I can, that’s going to be my life that is private.”
Still, Edgar-Jones and Mescal have been very open to the press about how cherished their friendship is. Here, all they’ve revealed about their offscreen relationship.
Edgar-Jones said in July 2024 that she sees Mescal as a “lifetime best friend.”
Years after Normal People’s release, Edgar-Jones told Variety that she and Mescal remain very close. “Paul is one of my lifetime best friends,” she said. “He’s an incredibly grounded person, and I am, too, I think, so it’s nice to be able to have those touchstones and those people you can laugh about it with and be lighthearted with. We met when I was 20, and Paul was 22; I’m so excited to see where we’ll be at 32, 42, and what life will bring us.”
Edgar-Jones clarified their viral 2022 Met Gala meme photo and revealed Mescal had suggested they do the carpet together because she was nervous about it.
During an interview with WhoWhatWear released on July 11, 2024, Edgar-Jones was asked about the 2022 Met Gala photo where Mescal was photographed looking at her from behind.
It became a meme, but the story behind it shows just how supportive their friendship is.
Edgar-Jones explained that the fan response to the image was “kind of wild, considering the innocence behind it,” she said. “So I was having kind of an out-of-body experience at the Met Gala, so Paul had said like, ‘You know, come and meet me. We can do it together,’ because we were such good friends, and it was such a cool thing to be able to go together. But he was quite late so I just kind of stood at the entrance to the Met Gala and when you go, there’s like this pen where you’re held and then you go and do the carpet.”
She continued, “Finally, Paul came with Phoebs [Phoebe Bridgers, his then-partner], and we were waiting and did the carpet together, and honestly, he’s my pal, so he’s probably just going like, ‘Hey, there she is!’”
Edgar-Jones told Mescal and a crowd that she “fell in love with him...as a friend” during their appearance at Fastnet Film Festival in May 2024.
The two good friends reunited with Normal People’s director Lenny Abrahamson at the Fastnet Film Festival in late May 2024. Edgar-Jones went viral for confessing there that she developed deep feelings for Mescal, though she made it clear those feelings were rooted in friendship.
“I wanted to be an actor for years,” she said. “At that point, I had been working here and there. So read the book [Normal People], fell in love with it, fell in love with Lenny’s work. Met Paul, fell in love with Paul—like you know, as a friend. I’m announcing it here,” she added with a laugh.
In November 2022, Mescal spoke about leaning on Edgar-Jones as they navigate the film industry together.
Years after Normal People’s release, Mescal told USA Today that he and Edgar-Jones are still helping each other navigate their booming careers in the film industry. “It’s wonderful to have somebody who’s not only going through something similar, but a friend that you can talk to candidly about the ridiculousness and wonderful parts of this career,” Mescal said, confirming they remain close.
He also addressed his continued practice of keeping his personal life private. “I feel like I have a lot more control than I thought I would have,” he said, regarding what people know about his relationships. “Ultimately, I get to choose what I say and what I talk about. My private life will always remain, to a certain degree, as private as I choose to keep it.”
Ahead of their May 2022 Met Gala appearance, Edgar-Jones revealed in February 2022 that she and Mescal have a text thread.
She told The Guardian that, due to the COVID-19 pandemic, her relationships with the Normal People cast, including Mescal, were largely virtual following the show’s wrap. “I haven’t seen anyone I made it with for two years now,” she said at the time, noting, however, that the cast members do text.
She added that “filming was so intense. So full-on and all-consuming. Only you and that specific group of people know what it was like. A very insular experience that I now have this massive nostalgia for.”
Edgar-Jones tried (and failed) to get Mescal into Selling Sunset.
The two stars spoke a lot more about their relationship during the press tour for Normal People. During a December 2020 interview with The Guardian, Edgar-Jones spoke about urging Mescal to watch Selling Sunset with her.
During a joint interview, Mescal mentioned a show she’d tried to get him to enjoy. “I can’t remember the name of it,” Mescal said. “I think it was Selling Sunset? The one with the realtors in LA. I couldn’t get into it.”
“How you couldn’t get on with that, I don’t know,” Edgar-Jones quipped. “Impossible!”
Edgar-Jones spoke in multiple interviews about how explosive her first meeting with Mescal was during her audition for Normal People.
Of her chemistry read audition with Mescal, she told British Vogue in March 2020, “I’d never felt adrenaline like it.”
In July 2020, she expanded on the moment to Collider, adding, “I remember when I flew to my audition, I accidentally walked into one of the audition rooms when somebody else was in there and was like, ‘Oh, my God, sorry!’ And I saw Paul sitting there and was like, ‘Oh, my God, that’s Connell.’ I felt like I knew him because I’d read the story, which is so strange, but he was lovely. He came out and had a little chat with me, before we went into our audition, because I was obviously absolutely terrified, and he was very, very nice.” She added that during the audition, she felt like “Paul’s version of Connell was just so perfect, and their dynamic was how I’d imagined it, when I read the book. That was a real special thing. I relaxed very much into that audition, which doesn’t usually happen.”
Edgar-Jones and Mescal discussed how their friendship blossomed during Normal People’s filming.
Collider also asked Edgar-Jones about her relationship with Mescal on her first day versus her last day of filming. She responded, “It’s funny because the first scene we shot was actually meant to be the first scene of the series. I think it now is a school scene, but initially, it was when Marianne asks him if he’d like to give her a grind, and she’s eating ice cream. I remember that day very vividly. It was not only a feeling of, ‘Can I even play this character?’ but it was also a first-day-of-school feeling, where you’re like, ‘Can I make any friends, or is this going to be a really torturous four months?’ I was very lucky that Paul and I have the most wonderful friendship, and that’s something that I’ll always treasure. I feel very lucky to have gone through this whole thing with him. Even just the surreal-ness of talking about the show and promoting it from our bedrooms in isolation, it’s wonderful to have shared it with Paul. I’m just so chuffed that people like the series as much as we enjoyed making it.”
In a separate interview, Collider asked Mescal the same question. He said the co-stars’ first and last day working together, “they feel like worlds apart. I was definitely terrified on the first day, for loads of reasons. It’s a scary thing, walking onto any set on the first day, let alone it being your first day playing these characters that an audience already loves and has very clear opinions about it. And then, in terms of the last day, I knew me and Daisy were gonna get on, from the start, but at the end, we were best friends. The whole journey of their relationship is mirrored, in a certain sense, in terms of getting to work with her, for five or six months of last year.”
Mescal joked to Harper’s Bazaar in April 2020 that their relationship didn’t “really start on the best foot.”
During a joint interview with the magazine, Mescal joked that his offscreen friendship with Edgar-Jones “didn’t really start on the best foot, because I had heard that Daisy was cast, and I sent her a message, which was rudely shunned and not replied to.”
“Oh, my gosh, I can’t believe this,” Edgar-Jones objected. “This is not true!”
“Anyway, I forgave her very quickly, because once we started rehearsing, I think ultimately it came down to just me and Daisy really getting on and having lots of fun,” he said. “Also, I think it was useful that we were both playing characters that are kind of seismic of the shape of our careers—we both hadn’t led a television series, so we were kind of in it together.”
Mescal said in July 2020 that meeting and getting to know Edgar-Jones was magic for him, too.
Mescal told Deadline in July 2020 that he knew right away his connection with Edgar-Jones was going to be special, but time would show to what extent. “How do you know when you meet your best friend?” he said. “Or how do you know when you meet any potentially lifelong partners, from a first meeting, that they are going to be that thing? You can’t. It’s a process that builds. But I knew very quickly, as we got into the shooting process, that Daisy was the perfect fit for Marianne as an actor.”
Edgar-Jones and Mescal revealed their real-life dynamic is very different from their Normal People characters’.
Also in the interview with Deadline, Edgar-Jones shared how her and Mescal’s real friendship offscreen differs from their Normal People characters’ relationship. “[Marianne and Connell’s] dynamic is quite different from mine and Paul’s because they are wonderful, but they are quite serious at times,” she said. “And I think Paul and I are quite silly, and we get hysterical quite quickly and easily. So, if we were ever doing things that were quite emotional, we were able to have a good giggle offscreen.”
Mescal added that “towards the end of the shoot, discussions around scenes just happened less and less and less, because—and this is kind of insane—we both knew without speaking to each other how we were going to play the scene. I feel like I got to the point with Daisy where I knew what we were both going to do before we did it, which is lovely.”
Mescal called finding Edgar-Jones a “massive joy,” while Edgar-Jones said in July 2020 she saw them always being best friends.
In their Deadline July 2020 interview, Mescal spoke adoringly of their friendship. “I’ve definitely found a friend, one of my best friends for life,” he said. “If the show had been an absolute failure, that’s something that brings me massive joy, that I found somebody who is an amazing person and who I really enjoy working with.”
“I think Paul and I will always be best friends,” Edgar-Jones added. “One of the most special things I gained from Normal People was meeting Paul. Because it was a scary thing, and we were both very scared to go into doing it. It’s a lot of pressure taking on characters that people have already fallen in love with, and that were locked in their own imagination.”
Mescal and Edgar-Jones played a drinking game when they watched Normal People together for the first time.
The co-stars first watched their series together in fall 2020. Mescal told British GQ in a November 2020 interview, “We hadn’t actually watched it together, Daisy and I, because of lockdown, we hadn’t done that, so last week we got together and watched the whole thing through. We actually ended up playing a little drinking game: Every time Connell wouldn’t complete a sentence or any time Marianne would make an emphatic statement that made Connell uncomfortable, we did a shot. We ended up talking over most of it, just reflecting on particular days, costume changes, memories. It was very special to get to do that with her. The thing we shared—will always share—is so unique.”
He continued, “Getting to watch it over with someone who had watched you work in such a detailed way was just eye-opening for us both, I think. There was so much positive noise around the show when it came out, but I can safely say that we both worked incredibly hard to bring those characters to life, both for the sake of the production but also for our own careers. We knew how much it was going to mean, to be honest. We understood the significance and size of the job and that our relatively new careers would be judged for it in a very public arena.”
Alyssa Bailey is the senior news and strategy editor at ELLE.com, where she oversees coverage of celebrities and royals (particularly Meghan Markle and Kate Middleton). She previously held positions at InStyle and Cosmopolitan. When she's not working, she loves running around Central Park, making people take #ootd pics of her, and exploring New York City.
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