“It’s actually something I’m incredibly proud of.”
Paul Mescal, the star of Hulu’s much-discussed new series Normal People, has waded into the heated debate over the show’s sex scenes.
The show, directed by Lenny Abrahamson and adapted from the novel of the same name by Sally Rooney, was the subject of a, frankly, iconic discussion on Liveline this week with callers comparing it to “something you’d see in a porno” and warning that it could influence people to have sex out in the street.
Mescal, who is 24, was a guest on last night’s Late Late Show, and told Tubridy: “The last thing I want to do is sit and judge people for that, because they’re obviously entitled to their opinion.
“My own perspective is that we worked hard – myself, Lenny, Daisy (Edgar-Jones) and Hettie (Macdonald) – we worked very hard to make it feel like it was a real, accurate and truthful representation of sex amongst young people today and it’s actually something I’m incredibly proud of and something I’m really proud to see on Irish screens, personally.”
As well as hysterical criticism, the show’s portrayal of sex has also won much praise for its sensitivity and its realism, with one caller to Joe Duffy saying that it formed the basis of a conversation about consent he had with his daughter.
The show was developed by Hulu, and is being broadcast by RTÉ in Ireland. The next episode will air at 10.15pm on Tuesday (5 May).
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