Los Angeles, Feb 24 (IANS): Actor Paul Mescal has blasted a "creepy" fan for groping his bottom when he agreed to take a picture with her and said he confronted her over her actions.
The 'Aftersun' actor has found most encounters with his admirers to be "really nice" but there have also been occasions where he's been left feeling uncomfortable, such as a recent experience when a woman asked for his photo outside the Almeida Theatre in London, where the 27-year-old star has been starring in a production of 'A Streetcar Named Desire', reports femalefirst.co.uk.
He recalled to ES magazine: "As we posed for it, she put her hand on my a**.
"I thought it was an accident, so I like (moved away) but the hand followed. I remember tensing up and feeling just, like, fury.
"I turned to her and said, 'What're you doing? Take your hand off my a**.'
"The last thing I want to do is call somebody out in front of the theatre - it's uncomfortable for everyone involved - but it was really not okay. It was so gross, creepy.
"97 per cent of (fame) is really nice - then three per cent is somebody, like, grabbing your a**."
Mescal became a household name when he starred as Connell in the TV adaptation of Sally Rooney's novel 'Normal People' in 2020 and he admitted he found the attention "a bit affronting" and was uncomfortable being seen as a heartthrob.
He said: "Like I had this woman who said she had a naked picture of me, a screenshot from the show, as the wallpaper on her phone. And it was mad to me -- like, she wasn't doing it to be incendiary, I think she was genuinely trying to tell me she was a big fan but it just felt very weird. I didn't like it.
"When 'Normal People' came out, the attention was a bit affronting. It was like, 'This is f****** crazy.' Now I'm a bit more comfortable with it.
I realised, like, this can consume me and I can be p***** off with every person who has a naked picture of me stashed somewhere or I can just let it go. It's the internet. The internet is this evil f****** entity and it has so much power but it's an exhausting hill to try and die on because you're not going to win."
But Mescal insisted getting attention for his looks won't impact on the work choices he makes.
He said: "Ultimately, I don't want it to affect the choices I make. Nudity and sexuality in art and film and theatre are beautiful and important.
"It's important that we don't let the aftermath - the people (on the internet) who're predatory and f***** up - impact the choices that we make creatively. I insist with myself that that's never going to happen."