Paul Mescal swears he doesn't run away from women in public parks, thank you very much

Paul Mescal's Gladiator II character may be all about "strength and honor," but some pretty dishonorable rumors emerged last winter about the star and his alleged, er, not-so-great dating habits. Despite the promises of movies like The Idea Of You and Notting Hill, no one normal (ha) who finds themselves on a date with a celebrity actually expects it to turn into a full-blown, storybook romance. And that's fine! But even if that celebrity were the most famous it-boy in the world, you'd probably still expect them to be an actual human being and not take you on a walk in the park when all was said and done, point out a fun bird or tree, like you were a golden retriever, and then literally sprint away without saying so much as a goodbye. That would be crazy, right? Paul Mescal, who was accused of doing just that in a series of viral TikTok videos last Christmas, certainly thinks so.

"Ohhhhhhh… Fucking hell!" he apparently "moaned, head in his hands" before "belly laughing and turning red" when GQ brought up the rumors in a recent interview. He and his siblings "were looking at the videos and we were pissing ourselves at it. Categorically untrue. And we were laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing," when it first came out, he continued. 

But while it sounds like Mescal has a healthy sense of humor about the weird stuff that happens when you're a famous person on the internet, his mom still tried to defend his honor from the people spreading the bizarre tale—many of whom had clearly never met the actor, much less been on a date with him. "The one thing that upset me was that I was in the kitchen, I remember my mum looking at the videos and she was getting upset. Isn’t that devastating?" he said. "I was like, Oh, it’s funny to us—my brother, me, my sister—because we know that this is the way the internet works. It’s hilarious. If it was true, it’d be fucking bad, but as a rumor, it’s funny. Then I was like, Oh, if you’re a mother, her impulse is to come out and be like, 'He wouldn’t do this.'"

So there you have it, straight from Mescal's mom. If you find yourself waking up with the Aftersun actor, you can probably settle in for a coffee or at least a goodbye. But, of course, all moms want their sons to look good to the public and no one would ever actually admit to doing something so insane, so you might want to pack a pair of sensible sneakers as well… just in case. (Kidding! Probably.)