“What if your first love is your greatest love – and your last love?” That is a question at the heart of “The History of Sound.” This is a new historic romantic drama starring Paul Mezcal and Josh O’Connor, which will premiere in theaters on Friday.
Directed by Oliver Hermanus and adapted from a short story of the same name by author Ben Shattuck, the film explores the influence of a fleeting romance between Lionel (Mezcal) and David (O’Connor). A few years later, after serving in World War I, David asks Lionel to join him on an improvised trip through Maine Backwood and gather traditional folk songs to preserve them for future generations.
“What I find very interesting about this film is that it’s not the trope trope, but the walk to the bar, look around the bar, see the person he fantasizes, and they fall in love. That’s the opposite. “It’s not one of physical chemistry. It’s initially one of intellectual and artistic chemistry.”
O’Connor described the character’s relationship as a “seeing the appearance” romance, saying he was drawn to the way “their entire relationship wants something else to add to it.”
“The adventure they will continue is to invite others into their world,” he said. “It’s such a selfless romance in that sense, so I think it was something I’ve never seen in the film before, and it really felt a way to tell a different love story.”
Even in the decades after they parted ways, Lionel is constantly drawn back to his memory of his brief time with David. For Hermanus, who has explored the brutal “political aspects of strangeness” of his home country of South Africa, “sound history” represents an opportunity to tell the gay love story he wants to see.
“Life should be full of longing and memories,” he said. “There should be a dramatic element in life that things don’t always work out the way you expect them to, but there’s this crucial thing about what you have, what you experience. I think it’s a very realistic or very poetic way of looking at life.”
Filmmakers were particularly insisting on creating a central romance that opposes the depiction of same-sex relationships of the era. Lionel and David never explicitly label their relationship, and their romance exists somewhat bubbles.
“The bigger political act of making a film like this is not giving politics oxygen,” Hermanus said. “The great liberation here is the film itself, and the characters themselves are unexplained.”
Mescal and O’Connor met for the first time in the early days of the Covid-19 pandemic. Mezcal had just quit his “normal people” success, but O’Connor was in the middle of a two-season run as Prince Charles in “The Crown.” The actor soon bonded to a similar taste of actors, films and directors, then signed “The History of Sound” separately. The film faced numerous delays first with fundraising, then with the pandemic and double Hollywood strike. However, even if their profiles rose, both actors remained committed to making the film.
“We were oddly lucky because it didn’t mean we had to go through a crash course of friendship in the weeks leading up to filming. It evolved naturally over the course of five years,” Mezcal said. “We got to the perfect point where we really knew each other and loved each other.
The film took so long to raise funds and make that Hermanus said he “was able to observe the kind of intimacy that his main men had.”
“What they really have as Paul and Josh is about mischief and stupidity, and that was kind of the energy we put on the set,” he said.
That playfulness was the way the actor offset the quiet sadness and heartache of the story. In the final act of the film, Lionel discovered that “a very passionate musical lover” had fallen in love with him, saying that he had been “darkened by the trauma of war.” “The trip collecting that song will be the blossoming of their relationship, but that also gives a hunch, as they have changed by the time they meet on that trip.”
“The way David sees the world is so pure and fun, and he seems to be the purest optimist. Ultimately, this adventure is because of his love for music, and it is also because of his love for Lionel. They are to create spaces where they can experience something they love together in the purest and most exciting ways,” added O’Connor. “The sadness that comes with it is discovering that what lies behind such broad-eyed optimism is a kind of essential sadness, and that’s the pain of the film. Back in Lionel’s eyes, it’s so powerful.”
Neither Mezcal nor O’Connor are strangers to telling bittersweet gay love stories. O’Connor broke out in the “Red of God” in 2017, but Mezcal cemented his status as one of Hollywood’s rising men in 2023’s “All Our Strangers.” Both actors who have admitted to having mixed feelings about the subject of whether or not a straight actor should play a queer character say the dialogue is constantly evolving.
“It’s a conversation that has definitely evolved since I was in drama school up until now. I’m very grateful for it because I don’t only feel close to me, but sexuality isn’t the crucial factor. In fact, I feel like I’m closer to many gay characters than straight ones. “I don’t think what I’m playing is exclusive to gay men. I think it’s probably something that attracts me to the sound beyond the sexuality of the characters I play.”
Hermanus said his approach to casting roles is always tied to the connections he builds together with actors and talent, rather than with personal identity.
“As a filmmaker, if someone offered me a strange job because I was a strange person, I hate it,” he said. “I want freedom to tell a story in some way because of expression, so I think any artist wants freedom to interpret it.
When O’Connor approaches some role, the starting point is “What can I draw from my life to these characters?” and sometimes there is a stretch character aspect, sometimes not. “He added that David’s character has been much resonated with him.
“I really remember reading that short story for the first time. It hit me so hard. A kind of optimism with fear, love, sadness and a kind of sorrowful kind of optimism – it just tears my heart,” he said. “So I think we are very fortunate to have diverse roles in our careers.”
