Oscar nominee and hot star Paul Mescal talked about masculinity in film during the Cannes press conference for The History of Sound, saying that cinema is “moving away” from alpha male roles.

Mescal stars in Oliver Hermanus’ gay romance alongside Josh O’Connor, with the two playing musicians who travel to New England together in the summer of 1919 to record the folk songs of their rural countrymen.

“It’s ever shifting,” he said. “I think maybe in cinema we’re moving away from the traditional, alpha, leading male characters. I don’t think the film is defining or attempting to redefine masculinity, I think it is being very subjective to the relationship between [their characters] Lionel and David.”

“I personally don’t see the parallels at all with ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ other than we spent a little time in a tent,” he said, eliciting laughs from the room. “Brokeback is a beautiful film, but it is dealing with the idea of repression … I find those comparisons relatively lazy and frustrating, but for the most part I think the relationship I have to the film is born out of the fact that it’s a celebration between these men’s love and not the repression of their sexuality.”

“Josh has a great gift… the person who the general public sees is very similar to the one that we know and I think that’s very difficult for an actor in today’s age to do,” he said. “We’ve known each other for about five years and we were definitely friendly so that foundation of safety and play was there, but that relationship really deepened in the three or four weeks we were filming.”

“I felt very lucky that I and Josh knew each other well enough to begin with but we had a canvas to keep painting on during the filming process,” he said. He also shared one of his favorite memories from set, saying that he and O’Connor became obsessed with jolly ranchers and would eat eight per day.

When asked if the film had changed how he looks at love in his own life, Mescal recalled that he was 24 years old when he first read the script and doesn’t think he “would have been able to play the role the same way.” Mescal was 28 when they shot the film.

“Love is a very complicated — what’s the thing, Andrew Scott’s speech in ‘Fleabag’ about love at the end at the wedding. That’s what I think about,” Mescal said. “It’s a very hard thing to pin down. What I found so moving about the screenplay is that it’s never really described in words, it’s described in actions and things you don’t see … That’s something I’ve learned in my own life, kindness is wildly underrated in romantic relationships and should be celebrated.”

“The History of Sound” made Cannes sob at its premiere on Wednesday night, where it received moderate ovation. Mescal teared up during the applause, though O’Connor had to miss the premiere due to his filming schedule for Steven Spielberg’s upcoming movie.

Alongside Mescal and O’Connor, the film stars Chris Cooper, Molly Price, Raphael Sbarge, Hadley Robinson, Emma Canning, Briana Middleton and Gary Raymond.