Paul Mescal was a guest on the 'Late Night With Seth Meyers' show over the weekend, and he he was asked about his previous stint as a gaelic footballer, when he captained the Kildare minor team.
The 'Normal People' actor gave an insight into his early career as an actor, when he studied drama at the Lir Academy at TCD and his struggles in balancing the work of an actor along with his sport. As he describes on US TV, it was not an easy task.
Paul Mescal And Seth Meyers
Paul Mescal: "I broke my nose and my jaw, I broke my jaw two days before starting my final year in drama school. So I was like 'I'm probably going to give it a break' for the last year', I found out that they don't really go hand in hand. You can't really act with a broken jaw."
Seth Meyers: "When you showed up to acting school with a broken jaw, were you honest that this happened during gaelic football."
Mescal: "No because they say you're not allowed to play any sport because it's bad for like your body and stuff. And I was like 'I'll be fine', go in and face-to-face with my acting teacher, and they're like 'what's wrong', well this is so weird 'I got mugged at work.' Yeah, a nightmare so I spent four week in rehearsals, just kind of like rehearsing."
Meyers: "Was gaelic football sad to see you go? Were you good at it? Were they like, 'we've lost one of our good ones to the acting craft?'"
Mescal: "I hope that's what they say I hope that's what they say yeah.'"
Meyers: "You know for matters of this lets just all agree, that they're still talking about you in the pubs, the one that got away."
“I broke my jaw two days before starting my final year in drama school… You can't really act with a broken jaw.” – Paul Mescal pic.twitter.com/j31Pbe8PFb
— Late Night with Seth Meyers (@LateNightSeth) September 30, 2022
READ HERE: Paul Mescal Stars In Brilliant Looking Irish Film From Legendary Studio
Mescal also described gaelic football "chaos, pure chaos" to Meyers.
“It’s basically like a mix between rugby and soccer, but is just brutal. Well rugby is pretty brutal.
“You represent like your parish or where you come from. It’s like nonprofessional, so it’s like very spirited I’d say.”