Mescal, meanwhile, said filming in Morocco and Malta was no walk in the park either.
“The only thing I will forever be angry at Ridley for is his deep desire to shoot at the fucking peak of summer, as a pasty Irish boy who does not do well in the heat, in armor, covered in fake tan and sweat, rolling around,” Mescal said. “Those fights were intense.”
3. Mescal didn’t seek out Russell Crowe for advice before playing the role of Lucius—but that didn’t necessarily stop the inevitable Russell comparisons from coming.
Mescal didn’t get in touch with the OG gladiator before filming, explaining that “I wouldn’t know what to say.” He added, “I think it’s also a mistake when people go, ‘This was Russell’s thing.’ Russell had proven himself time and time again. And he proved himself time and time again after Gladiator. An amazing career like Russell has had wasn’t built by just Gladiator.”
Connie Nielsen, who returns as Lucilla in Gladiator II, has a unique perspective, as one of only two actors returning from the original. After working on both, she compared Mescal to both Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix, who played Emperor Commodus in the 2000 movie. “There’s something about Joaquin that makes you sit up and pay notice, number one. It’s his willingness to stand in the world in exactly the way that he is and then synthesizes that into this unique essence—an essence that is really about the willingness to be vulnerable,” Nielsen said. “And then you have the Sturm und Drang of Russell Crowe who’s just marching in and taking possession of the scene, the camera, and the character.”
Meanwhile, director Ridley Scott said, “Russell is quite different from [Mescal], and he is quite different from Russell. It’s hard to put my finger on it, see. There’s a kind of vulnerability to Paul that Russell doesn’t have.”
4. Mescal put on 18 pounds of muscle for the part.
He already had years of playing Gaelic football under his belt, but Mescal honed his body into warrior shape for this film with trainer Tim Blakeley. Much of this happened while he was starring in a West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire, playing the brutish Stanley Kowalski.
Mescal trained anywhere between 40 minutes to an hour and a half, six days a week. Diet-wise, “was the worst bit,” he told Paiella. “That was the bit that I struggled with. Just lots of protein. I don’t have a massive appetite, so trying to eat two massive fucking boxes of mince and sweet potato hash between a matinee and an evening show was not fun.”
He knew the question was coming. You knew the question was coming.
“I studied it in school,” Mescal groaned, when he was inevitably asked how much he, a man, thinks about the Roman Empire. “Thought about it when I was studying it.”
His preferred historical era? The Irish Independence and Irish Civil War era (1919–23)—he’d love to do a film like Ken Loach-directed-Cillian Murphy-starring The Wind That Shakes the Barley. Take our money!
