Paul Mescal gets candid about his 'animalistic' Shakespeare in 'Hamnet'

Shakespeare has been played by many. So, actor Paul Mescal, true to his craft, wanted to play a massively popular figure differently in Hamnet.

He tells TheWrap that when he first read the novel of the same name by Maggie O'Farrell, on which the film is based, he got the idea of how he would portray the real-life character.

"I think when I read it initially, I didn’t necessarily see myself as what we associate Shakespeare with. I wanted him to be more animalistic, more traditionally masculine or heart-led rather than head-led," the actor shares.

He continues, "Cause I don’t think the writers that I know, or the fundamentally creative people that I know, necessarily live in their heads. They live in their bodies and their creative force comes from that energy – not from being tied to an attic table and writing whimsically into the mid-distance. I don’t think that’s who he is to me."

But not stopping there, Paul praised Maggie for writing what he described as a "wonderful" perspective on William Shakespeare.

"I just think it’s a wonderful perspective on William Shakespeare before he was considered a genius, and on the nature of art and how it separates us from our loved ones. I think it’s something that a lot of actors or fellow creatives will understand. It was beautifully articulated in the book. And that was my in," he notes.

Hamnet tells the story from the perspective of "William's wife, Agnes, and focuses on the death of their 11-year-old son, Hamnet, and the subsequent writing of “Hamlet,” a play that can be read as a veiled tribute to the boy."

The film debuts in UK theatres on Jan 9.