What is going on with Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal?
Are Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal soft-launching a relationship or a rom-com?
A seemingly-innocent Saint Patrick's Day photo has the internet aflutter.
By Dani Maher
IRISH ACTOR PAUL Mescal and unofficially Irish (but actually American) actor Ayo Edebiri have sent the internet into a tizzy after posting a seemingly-innocent St. Patrick's Day tribute photo together.
The photo-which was posted by The Bear actor Edebiri with the caption "Happy St Paddy's"-has sparked not one, but two big rumours about the actors. Now, internet sleuths are trying to answer the question: Are Mescal and Edebiri soft-launching a relationship of the romantic or cinematic variety? Read on for what we know thus far.
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What is the Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal photo?
The photo in question was posted on Instagram on March 17 (AKA St Patrick's Day) by Edebiri, who recently swept the awards circuit for her portrayal of Sydney in The Bear while winning hearts in cinemas as the hopeless-but-hilarious Josie in Bottoms. In the candid photo, Mescal-best known for being the wearer of Connell's chain in Normal People-and Edebiri are pictured sitting in a stairwell. Mescal is laughing and smiling at the camera, resting his elbow on Edebiri's knee, while Edebiri laughs with her eyes closed, holding Mescal's shoulder.
Edebiri captioned the photo, "Happy St Paddy's," adding a green shamrock emoji to the Instagram Story-leading many to believe she's referring to her long-running joke about being Irish (more on that below). But there are other theories at play too-including rumours that the pair are dating, or that they're teasing an upcoming film project.
Why does Ayo Edebiri say she's Irish?
Some fans have theorised that Edebiri's St Patrick's Day photo with the actually-Irish Mescal is just a continuation of her joke about being Irish. For the uninitiated: Edebiri went viral early in 2023 while talking to Letterboxd at SXSW, pretending that she played the role of Jenny the donkey in the critically acclaimed Banshees of Inisherin (which is set in Ireland).
"I lived in Ireland for about four months and I got really in character and I was on all fours for four months and it was really painful, but beautiful as well, and it was probably the most beautiful part of my career," Edebiri said in a faux-Irish accent (the girl's got improv skills, what can we say?).
Since then, Irish fans went on to dub her the unofficial people's princess of Ireland, a Twitter account called @filmindublin referred to her as "Ireland's own Ayo Edebiri", and Edebiri herself gave a shout-out to her "home nation" of Ireland in her speech accepting the Best Actress in a Comedy Series gong at the Critics Choice Awards in 2024.
Are Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal dating?
Since Edebiri posted the St Patrick's Day, rumours have been swirling that it might have been a soft-launch of a romantic relationship with Mescal-but neither actor has confirmed or denied those rumours, so there's no real evidence to support those claims.
The pair seem to have been good friends for some time. In March 2023, they were snapped together at the Film Independent Spirit Awards, and later in October of that year, they were pictured together at a party alongside writer Jeremy O. Harris and actors Fred Hechinger and Michael Seater. Then in February 2024, the pair reunited at the 2024 BAFTAs, where Edebiri was up for the Rising Star award while Mescal was nominated for Best Supporting Actor.
Are Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal starring in a rom-com?
The other reigning theory about the now-infamous St Patrick's Day photo is that Mescal and Edebiri were teasing an upcoming film project as co-stars. In November 2023, in an interview with Awards Watch for Mescal's film All Of Us Strangers, the actor both praised Edebiri's film Bottoms and mentioned that he'd like to work alongside her-in a rom-com, specifically.
"Comedy scares me deeply because I think I saw Bottoms recently and I was in awe of how they do that," Mescal raved. "That's one of those I leave the cinema and I'm incredibly jealous and brightened of everybody's talents involved with that film. But I think in the next five years I'm going to set myself a challenge to do maybe like a rom-com with Ayo [Edebiri] or something like that would be cool."
Edebiri responded to the callout in her own interview with Awards Watch, saying they'd already spoken about it together.
"Paul and I have spoken about it since because I told Paul he is very chaotic," Edebiri said. "Honestly, he's one of my favourite actors to watch, period. I actually said, 'So, is someone writing a script for us now, or what?' So that's my answer, if somebody writes us a good script."
Edebiri specified that she'd love to work on a rom-com in the vein of Richard Curtis-charming and funny, but still with plenty of heart, in order to play to both her and Mescal's strengths as actors.
"I think he's so brilliant, and I honestly would also really enjoy seeing him try his hand at comedy. It has to be in an About Time vibe. Something that's got, like, a heart, so he can still flex his drama muscles where it's like, the covert rom-com. Like, still a rom-com, but we got to get something inventive," she said.
Naturally, those interviews have now resurfaced-with people wondering whether the pair might have already found their dream project to work on together.
Related: The greatest rom-com films of all time
Will Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal star in Beach Read?
To add yet another layer to the conspiracies, some fans are convinced that Mescal and Edebiri will star in a rom-com-and that rom-com will be an adaptation of American author Emily Henry's 2020 BookTok hit Beach Read. Why? Because the author herself, and the screenwriter tapped to adapt it for film (Yulin Kuang), both reshared the photo, which definitely doesn't feel like a coincidence.
For those interested, the book's blurb is as follows: "A romance writer who no longer believes in love and a literary writer stuck in a rut engage in a summer-long challenge that may just upend everything they believe about happily ever afters."
Adding fuel to the fire is the fact that one of Henry's other best-selling rom-coms, Book Lovers, is being adapted for film by Tango Entertainment production company-which just so happened to produce Aftersun, the film for which Mescal earned a Best Actor Oscars nomination in 2023.
We'll just have to wait and see which of the many rumours (if any) are true.
More to come.
The post What is going on with Ayo Edebiri and Paul Mescal? appeared first on Harper's Bazaar Australia.
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