Paul Mescal says he's constantly reminded of the time he was in a commercial for sausages before becoming famous: 'It's a little bit of folklore in Ireland now'

• Paul Mescal said he will never escape a sausage commercial that marked his TV debut.
• "If I ever feel like I get too big for my boots, it kind of pops up somewhere," he told BBC Radio 4.

Paul Mescal may be an Oscar-nominated actor now, but it was just a few years ago when the actor made his television debut in a way that his fans are not going to be forgetting anytime soon.

No, not "Normal People," but his commercial for the Irish sausage brand Denny.

Before he donned Connell's iconic chain to star in the critically acclaimed Hulu/BBC series opposite Daisy Edgar-Jones, the 27-year-old actor first appeared on the screens in a 2018 TV spot for the brand, which he said has become "a little bit of folklore in Ireland now."

Appearing on BBC Radio 4's "Today" on Thursday to discuss his indie hit "Aftersun," the actor opened up about taking on the role in the commercial, admitting that at the time he was a recent drama school graduate and "had no money."

"If I ever feel like I get too big for my boots, it kind of pops up somewhere that we shouldn't forget that I was promoting sausages when I got out of drama school," Mescal said.

"I trained in drama school for three years, and took it so seriously. It was like, I loved the craft of it, and then I was poor," he recalled.

"My agent was like, 'I don't know how you'll deal with this, but we've got a sausage advert that you can go on.' I was like, absolutely. I need to pay my rent."

In the advert, Mescal plays an Irish teenager who is inspired to do some globe-trotting after his father tells him over breakfast that the sons of Denny founder, Henry Denny, traveled the world to teach people how to cure bacon.

However, after spinning a globe to decide where to travel to, he ends up in the Irish town of Ballyhaunis in County Mayo, rather than somewhere more exotic.

Mescal added that while filming the commercial, he felt it was "rude" to spit out the sausages after each take, but quickly came to regret that decision.

"They do this thing where they come around with like a bucket that you're supposed to spit them out into, and that just felt rude to me," he said. "But I learned my lesson that it's better to do that than have to eat 15 sausages in a morning. That was an experience."

Elsewhere in the interview — which is Mescal's first since receiving recognition from the Academy Awards — he shared his reaction to being in the running for best actor at this year's awards alongside Austin Butler ("Elvis"), Brendan Fraser ("The Whale"), Colin Farrell ("The Banshees of Inisherin"), and Bill Nighy ("Living").

"It's all a bit overwhelming, especially for my family. I don't think anybody, or even I, was expecting this," he said. "I always knew I was willing to work hard, but when the nominations came out, and the Baftas the week before, something felt slightly absurd about it all."