Paul Mescal on His Intense ‘Gladiator II’ Physical Transformation: ‘You Start Feeling Like Your Body Can Inflict Damage’

When Paul Mescal was first cast in Ridley Scott’s much-anticipated sequel “Gladiator II,” the actor was initially not too fussed about the inevitable physical transformation he would need to undergo to believably play a tough-warrior-turned-Roman-gladiator for the part.

Within weeks of being cast in the role last year, the actor was already grappling with questions about his workout plans for the role. At the time, he told The Hollywood Reporter, “Of course, there’s a physical robustness required for the character, but past that, I’m not interested. 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.”

After actually filming the role, however, Mescal (who gained 18 pounds of muscle for the film) has a slightly different take on it. Following a Monday night screening in New York City, Mescal was joined by co-stars Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, and Fred Hechinger to chat about the creation of the epic sequel.

“Well, I made the mistake first, when it was initially announced that I was going to play [this role], I very naively spoke to a journalist, and I was like, ‘I think I’m gonna play the gladiator like kinda, in a normal-ish physique. I realized that I was playing against what actually the film requires,” he told the crowd.

He continued, “To put it simply: they give you everything. On a film of this scale, you have the best trainer you could ever imagine, you have your food delivered to the door, so that requires discipline, but it’s not hard work. That’s just people at the top of their game telling you what to do. But in terms of the psychology that comes with training, is you start feeling like your body is capable — which is a weird sentence to say — but you start feeling like your body can inflict damage. It changes the way that you move and operate. And, if you’re being honest, that is a fun kind of place to live when you know that it’s make-believe.”

Paul Mescal, Connie Nielsen, Denzel Washington and Fred Hechinger speak during a ‘Gladiator II’ Special Screening, Q&A and Reception at AMC Lincoln Square 13 on October 21, 2024, in New York, New YorkGetty Images for Paramount Pictures

When the actor was asked about doing stunts for the film — and, specifically, if he had ever done stunts before in his mostly indie-leaning career — he explained, “I had done one fight scene before, this was a bit of step up in that regard. To be totally fair, independent [film] budgets don’t really accommodate [for] the safety of actors, generally speaking, so you kind of just wing it and hope that the other actor doesn’t punch you in the face.”

At the time of his casting early last year, Mescal was starring in a London production of “A Streetcar Named Desire” and was in the midst of his Oscar season, for his Best Actor-nominated role in Charlotte Wells’ “Aftersun.”

He recalled the moment he got the call that he was cast in the leading role, telling the crowd at the AMC Lincoln Square IMAX, “I was walking to the theater, and my agents called, and I’ll remember it for as long as I live, because I had my headphones in, there were probably five, six people in the world who [knew] at that point. I remember I felt in this total bubble of privacy, [what] the next couple of months would entail, [and] kind of just explode somewhat. And then, you hang up, and you go in and you do the play, and you go to bed, and you wake up the next morning, and you’re like, ‘oh, fuck.'”

He added, “You hold on for dear life, and you do the work that you would do on any other role, but the scale is just so much bigger, but the job is the same.”

Paramount Pictures will release “Gladiator II” in theaters on Friday, November 22.