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Newly single Natalie Portman and Normal People star Paul Mescal looked very happy to be in each other’s company while hanging out at London’s 69 Colebrooke Row bar in May, with photos of the pair sparking dating speculation online.
The pair got a case of the giggles as they stepped outside for a breath of fresh air, dressed casually for an evening out.
However, the Irish actor, 28, and the Oscar-winner, 42, are reportedly “just friends”.
Portman and Mescal have been pals for a while, with their connection clear as they interviewed one another for Variety’s Actors on Actors feature in December 2023.
The interview took place as Portman’s relationship with Benjamin Millepied was showing signs of strain. The pair later divorced.
During the chat, Portman and Mescal traded compliments. “If my drama school self knew that I would be talking to you, I would pinch myself many, many times,” the All of Us Strangers actor told the “utterly brilliant” mother-of-two, while Portman told him, “I remember seeing you in Normal People and just being like, ‘Oh my gosh, who is this talent?’”
After splitting with musician Phoebe Bridgers in 2022, Mescal vowed to keep his private life private, calling online commentary from fans on the matter “indecent” and “unkind”.
He told Vanity Fair, “That’s a difficult thing to achieve. But giving strangers an answer about my life doesn’t actually help me.” He continued, “It’s like a quick boost of serotonin, being like, ‘I’ve said what I need to say.’ And then it’s just Twitter fodder.”
Yet, he understands that it’s all part and parcel with being a Hollywood heartthrob.
“There’s a certain interest with any person who’s in the public eye in how that person lives their life and who they’re living up with, and what they’re doing and how they’re going about doing it,” he admitted. “And look, a lot of the time people are really kind about their support for me. That’s my predominant experience.”
Portman is no stranger to fans wanting to know the ins-and-outs of her life too. But like Mescal, she’s also chosen to keep her private life under wraps.
The only time she’s touched on her marriage breakdown was in an interview with Vanity Fair earlier this year, calling the public scrutiny about it “terrible”.
She also spoke about her decision to keep her relationships and family out of the spotlight, saying she went as far as to change her name when she first started acting as a child.
“I got very protective of [my public image] very early on. I chose a different name when I started, which was kind of an interesting way that I separated identities,” Portman said. “I would get upset if someone at school called me Natalie Portman. I was like, if you know me, you know me as Natalie Hershlag at school,” she added, while also admitting that having two identities didn’t really work in the long run anyway.
“As I started having kids and a family, I started realising that maybe it was not helpful to be like, there’s two of me,” she said. “I have many interactions during my day as a public person. To exclude that from my experience is not real.”
