Hollywood star in ‘biggest film of 2024’ has savage reaction to meeting King Charles

Hollywood heartthrob Paul Mescal who stars in Ridley Scott’s blockbuster Gladiator 2 had a hilariously diplomatic answer when questioned about meeting King Charles III.

The Irish actor was promoting his latest film when he was asked by a Variety reporter about meeting the monarch at a screening of Gladiator 2 inLondon.

Paul said he’d ‘never met the King [before],’ and the reporter asked: ‘How wild is that?’

The Aftersun actor looked slightly incredulous as he replied: ‘How wild is it? I mean it’s definitely not something that I thought was in the bingo cards.

He then admitted: ‘I’m Irish so it’s not on the list of priorities.’

The actor then added on a more positive note: ‘But ah, it’s an amazing thing for Ridley ’cause I know how important that is for him so to see his film celebrated in that context was pretty special.’

The reporter wanted to know more about this meeting and continued to press the actor for details about what he said to the King when he met him.

Paul pulled a vacant facial expression and said: ‘He just kind of nodded along and..’ the actor made a sound that almost sounded like an impression of the King before he stopped himself.

He then admitted that he could barely make out what the monarch was saying to him: ‘I found it hard to hear exactly what he was saying because your head is in such a kind of frenzy so you’re kind of nodding along and just smiling.’

After centuries of oppression, Ireland has had a complicated relationship with the British crown and the monarchy remains a point of friction for many Irish people.

Despite his evident discomfort, fans applauded the diplomatic response from Paul and how well he manoeuvred the line of questioning about the royal.

‘He handled this really well. Didn’t give any headlines but didn’t lie either,’ RobertWCummins commented on X.

‘He chose his words so brilliantly there,’ said ritwika_15.

‘This was so HILARIOUSLY stated lmfaoooo,’ said Ladidaix.

Paul recently received publicity after appearing on The Graham Norton Show with Saoirse Ronan as she spoke out about women’s safety in a viral clip.

Paul praised the Atonement actress for shutting him down on the show, commenting on RTE’s The Late Late Show: ‘I’m not surprised that the message received as much attention that it got, because it’s massively important and I’m sure you’ve had Saoirse on the show, like, she’s… quite often, more often than not, the most intelligent person in the room.’

‘But I think she… was spot on, hit the nail on the head, and it’s also good that … messages like that are kind of gaining traction like that’s a conversation that we should absolutely be having on a daily basis.’

Gladiator 2 is in cinemas now.

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