The History of Sound: How stars Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor came to lead this new romantic drama

Four years ago, actors Paul Mescal and Josh O’Connor were announced as the leads in a film called The History of Sound.

Mescal and O’Connor are now such household names – and internet favourites — you might not remember that in October 2021, they were a couple of up-and-comers with one big project each under their belts.

For Mescal, that was his debut screen project, the Irish TV drama Normal People, which had been a cultural moment the first year of the pandemic. This was before Gladiator II, Hamnet and his Oscar nomination for Aftersun.

O’Connor had been steadily acting across TV and film, but playing Prince Charles on The Crown from 2019 was the breakthrough, and after that, he blew up going toe-to-toe with Zendaya in Challengers, and has a juicy role in Steven Spielberg’s mysterious new movie.

“When we announced the casting, the world had some context of them, and then when we actually made the film, the context had completely changed, but they themselves are still the same people,” The History of Sound director Oliver Hermanus told The Nightly.

It’s not just that means more attention is being paid to Hermanus’ small indie film, a quiet but sweeping drama about the relationship between two men in early 20th century America, it also helped with financing.

“It was funny because in the beginning, people didn’t really jump around at the mention of their names,” Hermanus recalled. “But then when people realised that this move was still in process and they were still attached, it was like a lot of heads turned around, going, ‘Oh, we should probably go back and talk to those people again’.

“Even the company that is currently distributing the film all around the world, I had spoken to years before, so that came back around.”

You could look at it as piece of great luck or you could see it as game recognises game. Clearly, Hermanus and his creative partners saw something in Mescal and O’Connor that the rest of the world would latch onto very soon.

The History of Sound is a romantic drama, based on two short stories by American writer Ben Shattuck, who adapted them for the film’s screenplay. Mescal is the lead, as music student Lionel Worthington who comes from a poorer-than-poor Kentucky farming family.

His unique musical talents as a gifted singer with synaesthesia, crosses his path with David White (O’Connor), another student. The spark is immediate, but they’re separated when David is drafted to fight in The Great War.

The core sequence of the film is when, after the war, the two are reunited on a trip to collect folk songs from rural communities. These moments are underpin the emotional connection between the characters, at a time when a same-sex relationship was forbidden.

The combination of the performances, which also includes Chris Cooper as the older Lionel, and the filmmaking has seen audiences leave cinemas in tears.

Shattuck takes those reactions as a compliment.

“Anybody who’s in the story-making business or the art-making business, it’s like every once in a while, you’re struck by a question of what is happening here, where there are these invented characters, invented dialogue and you’re telling a story that everyone knows is fake,” he said.

“But it’s somehow affecting you on this level, and the emotions feel really good.

“I feel that especially with books because they just have so little, there’s no music, no actors and no visuals, but we are still so hungry for narratives that make us feel something. It’s kind of like a magic trick.”

Perhaps that hunger for a story which moves us also reflects the fact romantic drama films have been on the wane, as have many other genres that were once a staple in cinemas.

When once as recently as the 1990s, films such as The English Patient, Titanic, The Bridges of Madison County and Before Sunrise, dominated the culture, now romances tend to be, at best, a subplot within another story.

Or, they’re centred on young characters, one of them usually secretly dying, and often relegated to streaming.

In the past 20 years, there have been maybe three examples that have had penetrating staying power – The Notebook, A Star is Born and Call Me By Your Name.

Hermanus said things go in and out of fashion, and will come around again, and the important thing is diversity of genres. “For a long time, horrors did not work, and now people are inundated with horror films, and audiences love them.

“For a long time, westerns didn’t work, and then they came back. Drama, dramatic films that are sweeping and romantic, they had a good time in the nineties, I clearly like those kinds of film, and I am always excited by everything existing all the time.

“I like the idea that there’s access to all of it, and it’s the hope that the system that runs the film business, the financial backbone of it, maintains an interest in variety.

“Otherwise, the sad, monoculture will take over and we’ll all be in a Marvel movie.”

The History of Sound is in cinemas on December 18