Paul Mescal is hoping to do justice to Gladiator’s legacy within the upcoming sequel.Â
The Gladiator II star, 28, lately spoke with ET in regards to the extremely anticipated movie, which comes out this November and picks up a number of years after the occasions of the 2000 epic, which starred Russell Crowe because the slave-turned-warrior Maximus, who leads an rebellion in opposition to the patricidal traitor-turned-emperor, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix).
“I believe the primary factor that I am enthusiastic about is type of the homage that it pays to the primary one, but in addition the type of new route that the movie takes,” he shared. “I believe it is effectively balanced in that regard — when it comes to the bodily motion of the movie and the stability of the type of political elements of the movie as effectively.”
“It is an immense honor — it isn’t misplaced on me,” he mentioned of constant the movie’s legacy with director Ridley Scott. “That movie is massively essential to lots of people the world over. And for the nice Ridley Scott to type of move the baton on to me is one thing that, like, my drama college self and even the model of myself that was 15 watching the movie for the primary time, might by no means have imagined.”
Mescal shared that he took on the position of Lucius Verus — Commodus’ nephew who was despatched away from Rome as a boy by his mom, Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) — with a “nice deal of satisfaction.” When Lucius’ residence in northern Africa is raided by the Roman military, he’s introduced again to Rome to combat within the Colosseum — which additionally required an intense quantity of bodily coaching.
“There was quite a lot of work that went into it,” the actor recalled. “A lot of lifting heavy issues… a lot of squatting, pushing, pulling. We did not type of change the wheel with it, it was all type of fairly normal in that regard, however I used to be eager for it to not look false or type of overly aesthetic in any manner.”
Working with Gladiator II’s all-star solid — which additionally consists of Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, Joseph Quinn, Fred Hechinger and extra — was a pivotal expertise for the Irish actor.
“I believe for lots of us, particularly the youthful cohort of the solid, we might simply say that it is a job that modified our lives,” he marveled. “We’re type of ready with bated breath [for the release], however the factor that I hold coming again to is, we have achieved it. We have gone and made it and no person can take that away from us. And we had the king that’s Ridley Scott on the helm — it is wonderful.”
As for his recollections of the unique, Mescal recalled, “I keep in mind watching it with my dad and being completely blown away by it.”
“It has been within the cultural zeitgeist for 20 years, and there’s not quite a lot of movies which have achieved that particularly on this style,” he added. “So there’s a wholesome quantity of stress but in addition a wholesome quantity of confidence from the those that made the movie. We’re excited to type of add the subsequent installment to a movie that has been and can proceed to be extremely common.”
Gladiator IIÂ storms into theaters on Nov. 22.
RELATED CONTENT:
