Paul Mescal recalls embarrassing moment while filming Normal People sex scenes

Actor said intimate scenes were ‘quite unsexy’ to film

Normal People star Paul Mescal has recalled a hilarious mishap that took place when he and Daisy Edgar Jones were filming the show’s intimate scenes.

The BBC One adaptation of Sally Rooney’s bestseller made headlines for its steamy intimate scenes, but Mescal has revealed that they were “quite unsexy” to film.

“On the Friday of the first week, me and Daisy had to do a day of sex scenes and we were covered in this gel called Egyptian Magic,” he told The Mirror.

“It's basically fake sweat. We had to switch positions and our bodies were in close contact. When we separated it made a really loud fart noise. Me and Daisy started hysterically laughing, but the crew and director [Lenny Abrahamson] all thought that one of us had farted and really were trying to preserve our dignity.”

Mescal added: “Filming those scenes is probably the least sexy thing you'll ever do in your life, so it is amazing that they turned out so brilliantly, because at the time, they are quite unsexy.”

Mescal and Edgar Jones in ‘Normal People' (BBC)

Mescal was recently cast in Maggie Gyllenhaal’s directorial debut, The Lost Daughter.

He joins Oscar-winning actor Olivia Colman, Dakota Johnson, Peter Sarsgaard and Jessie Buckley in the cast.

The Lost Daughter will be an adaptation of Italian author Elena Ferrante’s 2006 novel.

The story follows Colman’s character, a college professor who becomes obsessed with a young mother and her daughter while on holiday, at the same time recalling her own, troubled memories of early motherhood.