Paul Mescal, nominated for Best Actor in the Academy Awards for his role in the movie "Aftersun" spoke about his anger at a fan grabbing his butt while he paused to take a selfie with them, which he called "gross" and "creepy". 

The incident took place outside Almeida Theatre, in north London, where Paul Mescal was starring in a production of "A Streetcar Named Desire". The County Kildare actor was asked for a selfie by his fan. 

Mescal told ES Magazine "As we posed for it, she put her hand on my ass. I thought it was an accident, so I like (moved away) but the hand followed.

"I remember tensing up and feeling just, like, fury. I turned to her and said, ‘What’re you doing? Take your hand off my ass’."

While he said calling out the perpetrator was "the last thing" he wanted to do he said, "it was really not okay. It was so gross, creepy".

He qualified his comments by pointing out that most of his experience of his new-found fame is positive. He said, "97% of it is really nice — then 3% is somebody, like, grabbing your ass."

Mescal, now one of the biggest Irish stars around, shot to fame during the pandemic when he starred in the TV adaptation of the Sally Rooney novel "Normal People", alongside Daisy Edgar-Jones. 

He's now been nominated for an Oscar for his role in the coming-of-age movie "Aftersun". 

Earlier this week Mescal attended the opening of the Dublin Film Festival at the Light House Cinema. With the Oscars now on the horizon, he told RTE that the excitement of the last few weeks is "hard to put into words".  Mescal's latest movie "God's Creatures", also starring Emily Watson, will run at the Festival until March 4.