Following months of anticipation, the first images have been released for Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor’s highly-anticipated gay drama The History of Sound.
Directed by Oliver Hermanus (Mary & George), the film is based on the Pushcart Prize-winning novel from Ben Shattuck, a collection of 12 short stories that are set across three centuries and explores generational patterns of love and loss.
The title story follows two young men in the shadows of WWI who are determined to record the lives, voices and music of their American countrymen. Lionel (Mescal) and David (O’Connor) begin to log the events, whilst falling in love in the process.
The film’s first stills, revealed by Vanity Fair, depict Mescal submerged shirtless in water, O’Connor caught mid-drag on a cigarette and the pair sharing a quiet, intimate moment as they laugh over coffee.
In an accompanying interview, Hermanus discussed casting Mescal and O’Connor, who have both risen to mega-stardom in recent years—particularly for their roles in the lauded queer films All of Us Strangers and Challengers.
“Their lives were literally changing, and it was always this groupthink situation of, Where can we find the time to force the universe to let us make this film?” said Hermanus.
“We probably wouldn’t have been able to make this film when we wanted to, in 2022, because they weren’t the Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor that we now know today.”
Mescal noted how fortunate he felt to be part of The History of Sound, acknowledging how often beloved projects fail to materialise after years of effort: “How many times do you hear people who really try and get something made over five, 10, 15 years, and it just falls away?
“I remember feeling very lucky. Like, We have to enjoy this. Because we’ll come across other opportunities in our life where we love a script as much as this, and we just don’t get to get it made.”
The Gladiator II star went on to gush about his chemistry with O’Connor, revealing that he brought out a “childlike version” of himself, and that he hadn’t “felt that kind of degree of boyishness in myself for a long time”.
In The History of Sound, the sparse inclusion of sex scenes was a deliberate choice by Hermanus, who told Vanity Fair he didn’t want to frame them as a “transgression.” He stressed that he didn’t want to draw attention to the fact that “these two men are taking the risk of being sexual” in a pre-progressive era.
“Ben wrote it in a way where there was no hesitation, no moment of fear. For me, the sex scene is when Lionel is walking around David’s apartment the morning after [their first encounter], and he’s smelling everything and sitting everywhere,” he explained. “He’s absorbing the energy of this person.”
Mescal added: “There is a kind of real sense of companionship, and the joy and loss that comes with the presence and absence of that. It’s not just about sex and the intensity of falling in love. It’s deeper than that.”
The History of Sound will premiere at the 2025 Cannes Film Festival, where it will compete for the Palme d’Or.
The historical drama also stars Chris Cooper (Little Women), Molly Price (Third Watch), Raphael Sbarge (Once Upon a Time), Hadley Robinson (Moxie), Emma Canning (Dune: Prophecy), Brianna Middleton (The Inheritance) and Gary Raymond (The Cedar Tree).
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