Josh O'Connor on the Challenge of a U.S. Accent: 'It's Difficult for Me to Move My Mouth in the Way That It's Supposed to'

"The two actors met during the pandemic, on Zoom, after O'Connor watched "Normal People" and like many of us, believed he was discovering an exciting young talent. He emailed his American agent: "You have to see this kid. He's amazing." His agent had already signed him. It turns out Mescal had been watching O'Connor, as well. The two got on famously, and have been chums ever since. (Check out their hilarious recent appearance on "The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon.")"

"" The History of Sound" director Oliver Hermanus went ahead with essentially the first draft of the script about two folk music collectors in love, Lionel (Mescal) and David (O'Connor) who travel the South trawling for cool songs to record for posterity. "It's the first script that Ben Shattuck had ever written," said O'Connor. "We all loved the short story. He delivered a script about a month later, and it was perfect, miraculous."

Josh O'Connor and Paul Mescal sought to make The History of Sound for five years but scheduling and demand repeatedly delayed the project until both actors were available. O'Connor is promoting four films this fall and reported feeling exhausted after the Telluride Film Festival. The two actors met on Zoom during the pandemic after O'Connor saw Mescal's breakout work and urged his agent to sign him. Director Oliver Hermanus filmed largely from Ben Shattuck's first-draft script about two folk-music collectors, Lionel and David, who travel the American South recording songs. O'Connor shot his scenes in a concentrated three-week schedule.

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