Gracie Abrams Says Paul Mescal Romance ‘Held a Mirror’ Up to Her Past Relationships, Strengthening Her Songwriting

Gracie Abrams initially “worried” that being in a steady relationship with Paul Mescal might end up “threatening [her] drive to write music,” something she opened up about in an interview with Vogue. But in a new Rolling Stone cover story published Tuesday (Aug. 4), the singer clarified her remarks, emphasizing that her longterm romance with the actor has only had the opposite effect.

Coming about two months after Vogue shared her comments about Mescal, the RS piece noted that Abrams was surprised to see how some people had interpreted it as her saying that she felt her career as a whole was “threatened” by the Irish film star’s presence in her life. “I’m like, ‘Are we on crack? Like, what the f–k?’” she recalled. “That was my cue to be like, ‘Oh, remember why you don’t look [at social media]?’”

The musician went on to clarify that her relationship has only “had the most amazing effect on my writing,” as she says Mescal has given her “the most amount of space to reflect on everything in my life.”

“It has held a mirror to me in ways that I didn’t know a relationship with another person of any kind could,” she continued. “It has given me all the perspective that I could have ever hoped for, on previous relationships, on my relationship with my family, on my friendships. It is the greatest gift, period.”

The Hamnet star and Abrams were first spotted together in the summer of 2024, later making their first public appearance together at the premiere of Gladiator II that November. For the first stretch, both parties chose to keep their relationship private, but last year began sharing more as the California native started featuring him in her posts on Instagram.

The couple is now based in the U.K. as Mescal films Sam Mendes’ The Beatles – A Four-Film Cinematic Event, sharing a cozy house in London. And beyond supporting her from the sidelines, the actor — who will star as Paul McCartney in the biopics — has also joined the Grammy nominee in the creative process of making music, teaming up with her to write “Imaginary Friend” from Abrams’ Billboard 200-topping new album, Daughter From Hell.

“It wasn’t some extraordinary event,” Abrams told the magazine about working on the song with her love interest. “We’re a very musical household, and so there’s always something brewing … I feel lucky to be generally inspired by him as a person and by his brain.”

And of watching Mescal prepare to embody McCartney in the films — a process that has involved teaching himself to play left-handed bass — Abrams said that it’s been “so amazing to witness” how thoroughly her partner has been able to transform. “He’s like an alien,” she told the publication. “I mean, he’s better at guitar backwards than I have been at guitar my whole life.”

See Abrams on the cover of Rolling Stone below.