The BBC apologizes for calling Paul Mescal British
BBC received over 600 complaints after calling Mescal a "British actor" ahead of the Oscars
Aux News Paul Mescal
As if the UK’s list of heinous crimes against Ireland is not long enough already, now the country is trying to claim Oscar-nominee and Irish golden boy Paul Mescal as their own.
The BBC shared that it received over 600 complaints last week when they referred to Mescal as British actor when discussing his Oscar nomination for Charlotte Wells’ Aftersun.
The chyron at the bottom of the broadcast read, “2023 Oscar nominations: British actors Paul Mescal and Bill Nighy are nominated for leading role.” While Nighy, who received a nomination for his lead performance in Living, is in fact British, Mescal is not.
“The text should have said that Paul Mescal is Irish. We apologise for the mistake,” the BBC stated in an issued correction.
Mescal is nominated alongside his fellow Irish actors Colin Farrell, Brendan Gleeson, Barry Keoghan, and Kerry Condon—all of whom starred in Martin McDonagh’s extremely Irish film, Banshees Of Inisherin. It’s turned out to be a banner year for Ireland at the Oscars, as they’ve also just landed their first Best International Feature Film nod for The Quiet Girl.
If either Mescal or Farrell win for Best Lead Actor, they will be the second actor to take home the win for Ireland, behind dual citizenship holder and three-time Oscar winner Daniel Day-Lewis. In his speech for his first win for My Left Foot in 1989, Day-Lewis said, “You’ve just provided me with the makings of one hell of a weekend in Dublin.”
Mescal’s previously talked of his Irish heritage, and in 2020 boldly tweeted, “I’m Irish,” after he was called British in a piece published by The Guardian following his debut role in Normal People.
Last year, he talked about being Irish in Hollywood, telling GQ, “I think Irish people are incredibly proud and that’s a really nice kind of buoyant feeling and then at other times it can be like, ‘Don’t get too big for your boots.’ It’s like tall poppy syndrome. I’ve witnessed it with other Irish actors or musicians. It’s kind of ironic because the fact that I’m saying this will lead to a portion of like, Irish mammies and daddies who will be like, ‘Well, look at him off on his high horse drinking a pint in London.’”
37 Comments
In 2020 he BOLDLY TWEETED
Maybe they were referring to his typeset.
What is the human condition if not to tweet boldly?
Update: The BBC apologises for misspelling apologize.
I remember being shocked seeing that episode. However apologise is in (more) common usage in Britain, and I tend to use any alternative spellings that distinguish my writing from that of an American. No offence.
Fair! I don’t usually take offense at spelling and punctuation as long as the meaning is clear anyway. I only saw the clip recently and thought it was interesting enough to share.
I saw it when originally broadcast, and to be honest every time I “correct” an -ize to an -ise when reviewing reports in work, a little part of me feels a bit uneasy about it.
Clearly this is just the BBC laying the groundwork for King Charles’ announcement of Britain invading Ireland
Hopefully to make up for Scotland’s imminent departure from the U.K.
I mean ..they can barely afford to hang on to Northern Ireland .
Wouldn’t it be something if this was what brought down the monarchy?
This indignity took me from hoy-ti-toy straight to Hy-Ti-Ty!
It’s turned out to be a banner year for Ireland at the Oscars, as they’ve also just landed their first Best International Feature Film nod for The Quiet Girl.The Quiet Girl is a beautiful film. Simply lovely.
A moose once ate my sister.
Just once, though, right?
One time, k’ay see, one time, Randy Beaman went to Ireland . . .
Dirty colonizers!No, in all honesty I love Ireland and all the Irish people I have met when visiting there. The Dublin equivalent of the IFC movie theater is a great place to see movies. Though even the charm of the locale didn’t persuade me to enjoy Living.
I assume you mean the IFI? It’s good alright, and great location.
I happens all the time TBH; this wasn’t an isolated incident. the British are surprisingly ignorant of their own local geography.
Not to give them too much credit, but it also seems like it might be linked to not knowing who Paul Mescal was and relying on press info. No shade. He’s amazing and I look forward to seeing his career grow, but they didn’t make the same mistake with Colin Farrell, Barry Keoghan, and Brendan Gleeson.
It might also have something to do with the fact that Mescal’s character in Aftersun is from Edinburgh. Particularly if they showed a clip of the movie in the program where the chyron appeared. So take it as a tribute to his accent work, perhaps?
There’s an old anecdote that’ll have to stay as that, because for the life of me I can’t find online links to a story about it. The actor Richard Harris (the first Dumbledore, for what it’s worth) talked about how, in the 60’s, he won a significant theatrical award. The British press headline on it that evening was “British actor wins prestigious award.” That night, he got very drunk, and got in trouble with the police. The British press headline the next morning was “Irish actor arrested for disorderly behaviour.”Also, see Cillian Murphy (who used play in a jazz band in the 90’s in Cork), Saoirse Ronan, Michael Fassbender, Domnhaill Gleason, Colin Farrell (a Dublin working class guy who used drop over to his neighbours and have tea when he came back from Hollywood), Chris O’Dowd* and so on…. all claimed by Some Folk to be British….And finally, Seamus Heaney wrote, when he was included in something like the Big Book of Contemporary British Poets, “Be advised, my passport’s green / No glass of ours was ever raised / To toast the Queen.”*I believe it is only a myth, though, that Colin McGregor is Irish
The actor Richard Harris (the first Dumbledore, for what it’s worth) talked about how, in the 60’s, he won a significant theatrical award.The British press headline on it that evening was “British actor wins prestigious award.” That night, he got very drunk, and got in trouble with the police.FTFY!
I’ll draw your attention to this interview with Samuel L Jackson and a British reporter on Colin Farrell:
Thornton: What was it like working with Colin (Farrell), cos he is just so hot in the U.K. right now?
Jackson: He’s pretty hot in the U.S. too.
Thornton: Yeah, but he is one of our own.
Jackson: Isn’t he from Ireland?
Thornton: Yeah, but we can claim him cos Ireland is beside us.
Jackson: You see that’s your problem right there. You British keep claiming people that don’t belong to you. We had that problem here in America too, it was called slavery.This traditionally happens every time someone from Ireland is remotely successful and has been going on for YEARS , honestly its hard to tell if its because people in Britain aren’t educated much about Ireland (they get confused because of the North , and because Irish people aren’t ‘foreign’ they assume we’re still part of the union), or just some Gammon in the BBC doing it deliberately. Given the history of the last 100 years or so between Ireland and Britain , its a still a touchy subject.Its also part of the reason Irish people (and the Irish Government) dont like the use of the (geographical) term British Isles , as it leads to the confusion.The only upshoot of all this is that Irish people have started doing the reverse and ‘giving’ certain unwanted people to Britain ,so its not unheard of dor irish people to refer to Conor McGregor as ‘British’
I’m guessing the interview kind of trailed off after that last response from Jackson…
One of my favorite things about Jackson is his willingness to blow up any interview when they say something dumb and insulting, although that usually manifests with him being mistaken for Laurence Fishburne
English education about Ireland is such shit.
(Also, fuck McGregor. We all know who that “prominent athlete” in that “Dublin hotel” was)
As an Irish I certainly get the annoyance when the Brits claim one of ours. But we’re a bit too easily offended at this point. It’s showing an inferiority complex and drawing on way too much violent hatred of the Brits.
You know why the pyramids are in Egypt, right?
Because they were too big for the French to steal and then in turn get stolen by the British?
The Brits are at it again
Some people are just pasty-faced and skittish, and that doesn’t necessarily make them British. Jeez.
The insularity of the British can only be eclipsed by Americans.
And when are you tubby pricks going to apologise for calling Scotland “England” or Scottish people “English” for all these years, hmm? Get your own shit together. Pathetic.
Gosh, someone with a Hispanic name on an American website is talking about heinous crimes. Thank GOD, South America and North America are such blameless places.
When I’m overseas and mistaken for an american, I’m a outraged as if I was mistaken for a straight.