Colin Sheridan: Why can’t movie stars act like normal people?

Praise is no longer an expression; it is a currency. You flatter me today, I canonise you tomorrow, writes Colin Sheridan

Paul Mescal and Jessie Buckley. Buckley speaks of Mescal with the hushed awe of someone describing a religious apparition.

There is a relatively new genre of performance that has emerged in recent years, and it is neither film nor theatre, neither tragedy nor farce, though it borrows heavily from all. It is known as the Actors’ Round Table. Ostensibly, this is a place where great thespians gather to discuss “the craft”. In reality, it is a kind of ayahuasca-induced compliment vortex in which grown adults sit in aggressively tasteful chairs and tell each other things that no human being should ever soberly say.

Actor A leans forward, eyes moist, voice reverent. “What you did in that scene,” they say to Actor B, who is not one bit embarrassed, “changed me as a person”. Actor B nods, suddenly stricken with humility, before replying: “Coming from you, that means...everything.” Somewhere off-camera, an awards publicist smiles the smile of someone watching their pension mature.