Alert, Your 'Normal People' Obsession Paul Mescal Appears To Be Single

He may not be the best communicator, but Connell Waldron has still managed to become the internet's dream boyfriend. Normal People's breakout star Paul Mescal is a certifiable sex god, and if you haven't watched the BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney's bestselling novel yet, you're going to want to check out it. Of course, the question now on everyone's mind (besides, "Why do I keep dreaming about Connell's silver chain?") is whether or not Irish actor Paul Mescal is single. Though I can verify Mescal isn't dating his costar Daisy Edgar-Jones IRL (as she's already spoken for), it's unclear whether he's seeing anyone else — but it seems to me that the actor is on the market. (Elite Daily reached out to a rep to Mescal for comment but didn't hear back in time for publication.)

During an interview with Mr. Porter magazine, Mescal said that — while he and Edgar-Jones aren't actually dating — he would like to find something similar to what Connell and Marianne have in Normal People, "but only in the last chapter in the book when they have such a deep connection emotionally and physically." He added, "That might be a dragon that I might be chasing for a long time." So... that means he's single, right?

For Mescal, one of the most important aspects of a relationship is challenging and engaging each other. While chatting with Mashable, the newcomer said that finding your partner "intellectually stimulating" is a "base level" requirement. "I think you can absolutely fancy someone on a physical level," he said, "but ultimately, if you are intrigued by their intellectual capacity, that's going to elevate the relationship." He also admitted that the idea of "soulmates" is something he can't really get behind. "...to be able to actually end up with your soulmate is a rarity — even to find your soulmate, and I'm not even sure if I believe in that as a concept," he said. But that's probably just because he hasn't met me yet 😉.

The actor isn't shy about discussing romance in general, but when it comes to his own dating history, Mescal tends to evade the subject. When asked during an interview with GQ if any past relationships influenced him while playing Connell, he dodged the question like an absolute champ. As he explained, "Having played Connell in context with Marianne, it's definitely opened up my mind to the sense that real relationships, whether you're together or not, exist very presently in your life, day to day, even if you're broken up." Vague AF, my dude.

Though he's not one to name names, Mescal did open up about a particularly disastrous dating experience while playing "Never Have I Ever" with Vogue. Apparently, he once used a very... inventive excuse to end a date prematurely. "The only way out for me, in my head, was to fake a phone call and pretend that my friend was in hospital," he recounted. "I got off the phone — I thought I had given my greatest performance — and said, 'Oh, my friend is in hospital, I have to go'." OK, not great, but Paul, if you are indeed single, I'm willing to look past that little incident.