Paul Mescal ‘incredibly proud’ of sex scenes in Normal People despite criticism

Paul Mescal has said that he is proud of how teenage sex was depicted in Normal People.

Paul, who plays Connell in the hit TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel, said everyone who worked on it wanted these scenes to be as accurate as possible. The show has been widely praised by viewers and critics but was the subject of some controversy on RTE's LiveLine this week. Some callers complained that the sex shown was too explicit. Speaking on The Late Late Show last night, Paul admitted that he had listened to the debate. "I suppose I was a bit surprised and the last thing I want to do is sit here and judge people," he told host Ryan Tubridy.

"We worked really hard to make it feel like it was a real accurate and truthful representation of sex amongst young people. "It's actually something that I'm incredibly proud of and something that I'm really proud to see on Irish screens."

The series, he added, isn't solely based around sex. "It's one aspect of the story and what it's really about is these two people coming together and drifting apart." Continuing, the Maynooth native said he understood what he was in for before they began shooting and that there was lots of care taken to make sure every involved was comfortable.

"I obviously read the book before filming and I think having read the book that it was quite clear to me that there were going to be sex scenes," Paul said. "I knew very quickly with Daisy that we were very respectful of each other. "And obviously the important part of the process was that we had an intimacy co-ordinator throughout the filming who oversaw all of that content and was very present in that discussion."