Paul Mescal has admitted he was so nervous about meeting Denzel Washington on the set of the Gladiator sequel that he ended up putting it off for an entire day, as he revealed the first thing the veteran actor said to him.
The Irish actor stars opposite the legendary US star, 69, in Gladiator II, Ridley Scott’s follow-up to his 2000 epic historical action film.
Due for release in the UK on 15 November, it follows Mescal’s character Lucius Verus, who is taken prisoner by the Roman army after they invade his home and is forced to fight as a gladiator. Washington plays Macrinus, a former slave who wants to use Lucius in his plot to control Rome.
Appearing on The Graham Norton Show with his co-star, along with fellow Irish actor Saoirse Ronan and British actor Eddie Redmayne, Mescal explained how he’d wanted to introduce himself to Washington on their first day of shooting together.
After filming ended for the day, he “stood at the bottom of the steps” leading up to the box where Washington had been: “I stood there for a couple of minutes and I was like, ‘Not today’. So I bailed and ran to my dressing room, and I said, ‘Tomorrow you’re going to be a brave boy.’”
On the second day, he waited again and finally met Washington, who shook his hand and apparently said: “Stop working out, man.”
In the same episode, Mescal explained the gruelling workout regimen he’d been put through by his personal trainer in order to play the role of Lucius.
Sharing that he did “everything” the trainer asked of him, including eating “a lot of chicken and [lifting] heavy things,” he admitted that he drew the line when it came to giving up smoking and drinking alcohol.
He also revealed that he was offered the role immediately after a 30-minute call with Scott: “Ridley does not waste time,” he said. “I thought there would be camera tests and auditions, but we Zoomed for half an hour, spoke for 10 minutes about the part, and then for 20 minutes about Gaelic football, his dog and his wife.”
Studio executives disclosed last year that Mescal’s shirtless scenes in the West End production of A Streetcar Named Desire were what convinced them he would be perfect for the role.
“He played Stanley, and there are several moments where he takes off his shirt and it was electric,” Paramount co-head Daria Cercek told Variety last July. It was after watching those scenes that made “the ladies” in the audience “very vocal” that Cercek and her co-head Michael Ireland agreed they had “found our guy.”
Early critics’ reactions to Gladiator II have been largely positive, with several predicting an Oscar nomination for Washington.
Gladiator II is released in UK cinemas on 15 November, then in the US on 22 November.
