Paul Mescal’s shirtless scenes in the West End’s A Street Car Named Desire revival convinced studio executives that he was right for Ridley Scott’s forthcoming Gladiator 2.
The Irish actor, 27, was confirmed to star in the Gladiator sequel in February, a month before he began his Olivier-winning six-week run leading the Phoenix theatre’s production as temperamental Stanley.
However, for confirmation that Mescal could fill out a toga, studio executives went to see him on stage in the southern drama, according to Variety.
“He played Stanley, and there are several moments where he takes off his shirt and it was electric,” Paramount co-head Daria Cercek told the outlet in a new interview.
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”.
In a previous interview, ironically, the Normal People star expressed disinterest in the “focus” placed on radical body transformations.
While he acknowledged the “physical robustness required” of him for the role, he said that anything “past that” he’s “not interested” in.
“This guy’s got to fight and got to be a beast. And whatever that looks and feels like is right for me, is what it’s going to be,” Mescal said at the time.
The forthcoming sequel will see Mescal play an adult version of Lucius, the young nephew of Roman Emperor Commodus – played by Joaquin Phoenix in the original 2000 box office hit.
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Russell Crowe in ‘Gladiator’— (Dreamworks/Universal/Kobal/Shutterstock)
Gladiator 2 will be released 24 years after the first film. The original film followed Roman soldier Maximus (Russell Crowe) who is forced into slavery and vows to exact revenge on his betrayer Commodus (Phoenix).
However, since the end of Gladiator showed Maximus’s demise, Crowe will not be returning for the sequel.
Scott had first announced his plans for a sequel in 2018. He later gave an update in September 2021, saying that the film was being written and would be “ready to go” once he was finished with his forthcoming Napolean film.
Napoleon, which features Phoenix as the French military leader, is expected to debut in cinemas on 22 November 2023.
Following its initial release, Gladiator was a critical and commercial hit. The box office smash earned $460m (£342.8m) globally and won five Oscars.
Gladiator 2 will premiere in cinemas on 22 November 2024.
