Paul Mescal could be bound for Oscar glory on Sunday for his role in Aftersun but before he rose to fame playing strong silent type heartthrob Connell in Normal People, he could be seen in his very first role back in 2017.

The Kildare star, who won Bafta and IFTA awards for his role in Lenny Abrahamson’s adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel, had yet to even graduate from his course at The Lir Academy in Trinity College when he took to the stage as Jay Gatsby opposite Ripper Street star Charlene McKenna in an "immersive production" of F. Scott Fitzgerald's jazz age classic The Great Gatsby at the Gate Theatre.

Mescal and McKenna in The Great Gatsby

Speaking to RTÉ Entertainment at the time, Mescal, who had yet to head to the exotic climes of Ballyhaunis and taste fame with that TV ad for sausages, said, "Jay Gatsby is multi-faceted. Daisy says he’s full of mystery and I think that’s really important in terms of playing him.

"He’s got a different visibility in a production like this because he’s constantly available to the audience whereas in the book he comes in in chapter three and chapter four so it’s interesting to play it that way and try to hold onto the mystery for as long as possible."

This production of The Great Gatsby was by English director Alexander Wright and it also starred Kate Gilmore, Mark Huberman, Gerard Kelly, Aoibhéann McCann, and Owen Roe in a performance that saw the theatre transformed into Gatsby’s world as audience members viewed the action in no less than 13 separate locations around the Gate.

27-year-old Mescal has come a long way since then. That turn in The Gate was followed by a TV role in eerie drama The Deceived, as well as a starring role in the Rolling Stones music video for their song Scarlet.

He is also stars alongside Saoirse Ronan in a film adaptation of the sci-fi thriller Foe and has wrapped filming in Donegal with Chernobyl star Emily Watson for God's Creatures, a psychological drama set in an Irish fishing village.

His upcoming projects include a role spanning a twenty-year shoot in Richard Linklater's Merrily We Roll Along, and his leading role in Ridley Scott's long-awaited Gladiator 2, set to film this summer.

Alan Corr @corralan