Paul Mescal is proud of the staying power of his movie Aftersun.

The Normal People star is currently nominated for a Best Actor Oscar for his performance in Charlotte Wells’ directorial debut, which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival in May 2022. The drama toured the film festival circuit and was released in cinemas to critical acclaim in October and November, with it topping many critics’ end-of-year lists.

Mescal, who represents Aftersun’s sole Oscar nomination, told Vanity Fair in a new interview that is proud of the way people are still talking about the independent film and voting for it during awards season.

“Look, Aftersun was never going to be a film that was ingrained in the campaigning world,” he stated. “We did our promotions on the festival circuits, and then there was just nothing you could read; I did lots of Zooms and stuff while I was doing the play (Streetcar Named Desire), but I don’t know. There’s something that I would describe as very elegant about how Aftersun has just hung around.”

He explained that there is always one low-budget film that seems to break through into the awards season conversation every year – and Aftersun is currently that film.

“To be part of one of the films this year that operated in the space – the films that I’m most excited to see every year – was really satisfying,” he added. “Weirdly those are the things that I’ve always dreamt about. To A, have something that gets into these things, but B, to get in across the board and for it to be with somebody like Charlotte (for her) first film, it’s just like – yeah.”

Aftersun is also nominated for four BAFTAs, including Outstanding British Film and Best Actor for Mescal.

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