Paul Mescal Says He Met Nicole Kidman While in 'Sweaty Underwear': 'Incredibly Undignified'

Paul Mescal was caught with his pants down — by Nicole Kidman!

The Academy Award nominee appeared on Jimmy Kimmel Live! Thursday, where he revealed he got a surprise visit from Kidman at a recent showing of his London production of A Streetcar Named Desire, in which he plays Stanley Kowalski.

Mescal, 27, told Jimmy Kimmel he didn't know Kidman, 55, was at the show. He was sharing a dressing room with two castmates, and they heard a knock on the door while they were changing.

"We thought it was the stage manager or something and I go to open the door," the Aftersun actor recounted. "It's Nicole Kidman, and I'm standing there in, like, sweaty underwear."

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Getty (2) Paul Mescal; Nicole Kidman

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Mescal continued sheepishly, "You'd think the next smart step is [to] put on some trousers, but there's something incredibly undignified about the act of [pulling up pants]."

"It's not a look you want to be caught in, [bending] over," he added.

After he shared a half-dressed hug with the Oscar winner and she left, Mescal said of himself and his fellow dressing-room inhabitants, "You just turn to each other like, 'What the hell just happened?' "

"When Nicole Kidman is in her seat at a play, is she talking to the screen about the magic of film?" asked a straight-faced Kimmel — a nod to the actress's viral AMC ads — as his guest and the audience laughed.

Kimmel, 55, is set to host the upcoming 95th Academy Awards, at which Mescal is nominated for Best Actor for his role in Aftersun.

Eric Ray Davidson Paul Mescal

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While speaking with PEOPLE recently ahead of the upcoming ceremony, Mescal said there are "going to be just so many people who I admire in the room" come Oscar night on March 12.

"I'm, like, a crazy Michelle Williams fan, so that's gonna be — I feel like I would find it difficult to even talk to Michelle Williams, so that's a big one," said the Normal People star. "[I'm looking forward] to maybe getting to know Colin Farrell a bit better, bumping into him over the next couple of weeks."

"There's probably a long list of people I'm looking forward to meeting," added Mescal, who said his family will join him in Los Angeles for the show.

"Bumped into Cate Blanchett the other day," he also told PEOPLE about his recent celebrity interactions during awards season. "Pretty wild — she said that she loved the film. I didn't really get much words out of my mouth. I think there will be a lot of that, kind of pinching myself."

"I think it's really cool that people I really admire are seeing the film," Mescal added of Aftersun. "I actually didn't know that it was the actor's body of the Academy that vote for the actors, and I think that's something I take great pride in, that actors are enjoying films like Aftersun and my work."