Irish actor Paul Mescal shared his opinion on why Ridley Scott invited him to «Gladiator 2». In addition to acting, some features of his appearance and sports hobby helped the director to like him.
Lucius says that Ridley Scott was impressed by his performance in the romantic series «Normal People». They talked for about half an hour on Zoom.
«I wanted to know what the story was going to be about, and we spent about 15 minutes talking about it. Then we spent another 10 minutes talking about a sport I used to play when I was a kid — Gaelic football. Maybe that helped because I was used to being in good physical shape,» Mescal recalls.
The director praised Paul’s performance in the series: he noted that although «Normal People» «is not really his kind of TV show», he was impressed with Paul and finished watching it thinking: «Who is this guy?». Ridley Scott himself says that the actor was a «special find» and «absolutely perfect» for «Gladiator 2».
Paul was also helped by a feature of his appearance that had annoyed him for years: his nose. Unexpectedly, he was the best fit for the role of a Roman.
«My nose is just Roman. So it’s useful in that context. A nose that I hated when I was in high school and got ridiculed for became very, very useful when Ridley needed someone in «Gladiator 2»,” Paul says.
Speaking of appearance, training and preparation for of the film setPaul Meskal said that he did not strive to look good, but only wanted to become as big and strong as possible. In his opinion, the pursuit of appearance leads to the fact that you can become like a lingerie model «, not a warrior».
Source: Vanity Fair