Joe Alwyn and Paul Mescal gave an insight into their exclusive group chat with another actor and their experiences with anxiety, in a recent interview with each other.
In a candid conversation duringVariety's Actors on Actors interview on December 15, Joe Alwyn and Paul Mescal, who both stared in Tv adaptations of Sally Rooney's novels, talked about their anxieties and exclusive 'Tortured Man' group chat with a certain Fleabag actor.
According to Enews, Paul asked Joe, "So what's the name of the WhatsApp group that we're in?" to which Joe responded, "It's the Tortured Man Club, I think. It's me, you—and Andrew Scott started the group."
Paul also revealed that Andrew, best known for Fleabag and Sherlock, messages the most in the group, "He's just on it every day, He's just on it by himself," he exclaimed. Joe added, "Just messaging himself good mornings."
In the middle of the conversation, Joe took the light conversation a notch high by asking Paul, "I wanted to ask you, which is kind of off-topic, but I remember us speaking before about anxiety and shooting and being able to get outside of anxiety in order to do the job. How are you finding that?"
Paul, who is currently dating Phoebe Bridgers, replied, "It’s that cursed feeling of, once you feel like it’s disappearing, it comes back and hits you like a ton of bricks.
He added, "for me, it’s trying to use that anxiety or fear or fear of failure — repurposing that to be like, “What I’m doing matters to me.” Might not matter to everybody, but it matters to me at that moment. How do you feel about that stuff?"
Joe, who is famously paired with Taylor Swift, shared his experience with anxiety, "It’s interesting and tricky. Because it gets to a point where there’s a degree to which nerves are completely inevitable and can also be helpful.
The Conversations with Friends star continued, "But at the same time, there’s a danger, and I’ve certainly felt this in the last couple of years, where that can start to take away some of the pleasure and the fun of doing it."
Joe stars in Conversations with Friends, whereas Paul led miniseries titled, Normal People. Both series are adapted from Irish author Sally Rooney's critically acclaimed novels.