Daniel D'Addario Chief TV CriticPaul Mescal is one of the TV season’s breakouts as Connell, the lovelorn young man whose romance with a classmate follows an uneven path on “Normal People.” On “The Great,” Nicholas Hoult is also caught in a bad romance — tormenting his wife, Empress Catherine II of Russia, in his role as Emperor Peter III. They talked to each other over video chat for Variety‘s Actors on Actors issue.Paul Mescal: Nick, you’re a legend.