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Normal People's Paul Mescal channels his inner rock star for Rolling Stones video

The Rolling Stones
The Rolling Stones

Actor Paul Mescal makes his debut as a rock and roll singer let loose in a luxury hotel in the music video for new Rolling Stones song Scarlet.

The video, which premiered on the band’s YouTube channel on Thursday, features the Normal People star during a drunken and lonely night at London’s Claridge’s hotel.

The Irish actor, 24, is seen smoking a cigarette and sipping whisky in the bathroom, leaping down the hotel’s grand stairwell and apologising to his lover, named Scarlet, over video call.

The song is a previously unreleased track the group recorded with Led Zeppelin guitarist Jimmy Page in 1974.

Mescal filmed the video at Claridge's (The Rolling Stones)
Mescal filmed the video at Claridge's (The Rolling Stones)

The video was directed by filmmaking duo Us – Christopher Barrett and Luke Taylor – with a socially-distanced shoot at Claridge’s.

Prior to the video’s premiere on YouTube, Mescal and Sir Mick Jagger spoke over video call.

Mescal asked: “The question for me is what do you think of the video itself? And if it is mean things I will just shut the laptop briefly and then open it back up again.

Sir Mick replied: “I liked it. I thought you were going to kill yourself when you jumped down that stairwell.”

Mescal replied: “So did I!”

Recalling the shoot, he added: “I loved the form of it.

“I really enjoyed it and I think that due to the pandemic and hotels being closed, it allowed the production team to aim big in terms of the location, and Claridge’s and the staff from Claridge’s were amazing.”

Sir Mick also admitted that he did not remember recording the song at fellow Rolling Stone Ronnie Wood’s home.

He said: “I remember doing it in many versions with lots of different people but I don’t remember this.

“And I spoke to Jimmy Page and he said, ‘I remember it. We were sat in Ronnie’s recording basement and it was these people.’

“He remembered all of it. I don’t remember it. I remember being there but that’s all. It wasn’t really a Rolling Stones record.”

Mescal earned widespread critical acclaim for his portrayal of Connell Waldron in the BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones as Marianne.

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Connell (Paul Mescal) in Normal People (BBC)

The 12-part series, co-written by Rooney and Alice Birch and directed by Lenny Abrahamson, has been a hit with viewers since airing on iPlayer in April.

Scarlet will be included on the band’s upcoming Goats Head Soup box set, which will also feature two other previously unreleased tracks – All The Rage and Criss Cross – as well as “many more rarities, outtakes and alternative mixes”.

It will be available from September 4.

Reporting by Press Association

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