MOVIE NEWS – Paul Mescal has worked hard for the lead role in Gladiator II, but he wants to avoid going down in film history as a muscular sex symbol. He wanted to look like a formidable fighter, and during his hard training, he concentrated on perfecting his fight choreography instead of flexing his sinewy muscles in front of the mirror.

“I wanted to be big and strong, someone who immediately shows that he can hit hard when insults hit,” said the actor in an interview with Vanity Fair. – In the meantime, I also kept in mind that when someone is only striving for the perfect appearance, it can easily get to the point where they look like an underwear model who doesn’t show that they can stand up against overwhelming force in the arena. I was very careful that my character was scary rather than handsome.”

Mescal also revealed that he received the title role of Gladiator II from director Ridley Scott after barely half an hour of conversation. True, she had a winning case, because Scott had seen her in the miniseries Normal People and picked her out, so the meeting was just a kind of confirmation moment. “That half hour flew by, but maybe it wasn’t that much,” the actor said. – We talked for about a quarter of an hour about what the film would be about, then for ten minutes about the fact that I played a lot of sports as a child, especially Gaelic football. This convinced him that I would be physically fit for the role. After two or three weeks, the message came that the track was mine.”

To put the word more jokingly, Mescal also touched on the fact that he might have been worthy of the role because of his nose. “I have a typical Roman eagle nose, which can come in handy in a story like this. At the time, I was teased a lot in high school because of it, but now Ridley was terribly happy that I looked just like a Roman.”

Mescal plays Lucius in the film, whom we met as a boy in the first part. At the beginning of Gladiator II, Lucius is already a promising young man, who has been fled by his mother, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, returning to her role in the first part) to Numidia in North Africa, where the Roman Empire cannot reach Hand of the Emperors of the Empire. Things turn out so that Lucius has to fight as a gladiator in an arena in Rome, and outside the arena he gets caught up in a whirlwind of dangerous political intrigues.

In the meantime, it was also revealed how the current sequel is connected to the multiple Oscar-winning first part.Pedro Pascal, the film’s other main character, plays the general Marcus Acacius, who is the talented student of Maximus, formerly played by Russell Crowe.At first, it is difficult to decide which side he is on when it comes to Denzel Washington‘s mysterious character, Macrinus: the gladiator-turned-arms-dealer is a high-level player who is waiting for the decisive moment to enter into the shaping of big politics at the head of his warriors.Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger play the twin emperors of Rome with unhappy memories.

(Gladiator II – domestic release: November 14, 2024.)

Source: UIP Dunafilm