Los Angeles, Nov 18 (IANS): Hollywood star Paul Mescal has talked about why he is still "chasing the feeling" he got when he performed in school plays. He said it is because he has never felt "adrenaline" like it despite his status as a Hollywood star.

The 28-year-old actor performed the title role in a school production of Andrew Lloyd Webber's classic musical 'The Phantom of the Opera' when he was a teenager.

Speaking on 'CBS Sundays', he said: "I'm still chasing that feeling again [from high school], nothing has ever really come close to that feeling. I know that's sounds absolutely bizarre. I think because it felt physically dangerous in my body to be exposed to an audience of people who knew me as somebody who played sport. The adrenaline was extraordinary."

The 'Gladiator II' star grew up in County Kildare, Ireland with a police offer mother and a father who worked as a schoolteacher, reports femalefirst.co.uk.

Asked if he has ever become used to the attention that fame has brought him, he admitted: "Within reason."

The “Normal People” actor explained that he wants to keep some distance between himself and the characters that he plays on screen, and noted that his relationship with his celebrity status is "ever-changing" as time goes on.

He said: "You don't want an audience to know you innately. [My relationship with fame] is ever-changing, I think."

Mescal had recently talked about when his new epic historical action film comes out that he will be "profoundly depressed" if he simply becomes even more famous.

Asked how life may change when the film comes out, he told Sunday Times Culture magazine: “I don’t know what the difference will be. Maybe that’s naive? Is it just that more people will stop you in the street? I’d get profoundly depressed if that’s so.If the film impacts my life in that way I’ll be in a bad spot."

"I’d have to move on and do an obtuse play nobody wants to see.”