The highly-anticipated second instalment of the 2000 film Gladiator, which was originally fronted by Oscar-winner Russell Crowe as Roman general Maximus Decimus Meridius, landed in cinemas today.
Mescal (28) stars in the Ridley Scott blockbuster alongside Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen and Pedro Pascal.
Paul Mescal in Gladiator II
He plays Lucius Verus, the grown-up son of Lucilla. His character was a child in the original film.
Speaking to Patrick Kielty on RTÉ’s Late Late Show on Friday night, the Kildare native said he is “incredibly proud” of the film.
“Now that we’re starting to see an audience response, there’s a big old sigh of relief,” he said.
“There’s something different about, you assume, the amount of eyeballs that are going to be on this verses anything else I’ve ever done, so there’s a big old exhale.”
The Normal People star also confirmed that he didn’t have to audition for the role and just had a Zoom call with Scott for “half an hour”.
“But I think it’s again, to tell you Ridley can ask for whatever he wants, and he generally gets it,” he said.
“So thankfully I didn’t have to go through, I thought we’d have to do camera tests or things like that but he’s very instinctive.”
Mescal also spoke about his family’s reaction to the movie and degree of fame he has achieved thus far.
“It’s a weird thing, I think for parents as much as this is alarming for me at least I’ve some degree of control over it,” he said.
“But I think for parents watching from afar I have to kind of remind myself to remind them that I’m alright.”
When asked by Kielty if he is ready for his life to not be any way normal again after this movie, Mescal said: “I think it’s always magnified at moments like this when you’re out in front of the film, and you’re running around to every city in the world, and I think it’s always at its loudest around this junction.
“But then I think, maybe naive of me to think that but you’d hope that the world moves on and then there’s another massive film that comes out and there’s eyes on somebody else.
“At the moment I’m saying that to probably preserve my own sanity but also, it’s a by-product of this amazing job that I get to do. If that’s the tax I’ll happily pay it, up and to a point.”
Kielty also asked the star about his recent appearance on the Graham Norton show alongside Saoirse Ronan where she made a remark about gender-based violence.
Oscar-winner Eddie Redmayne also appeared on the BBC One Talk show and revealed he had been taught how to use a phone in an attack while he was training for his role as a lone assassin in Sky Atlantic series The Day Of The Jackal.
In response, Mescal said: “If someone attacks me I’m not going to go (reaches into pocket) phone”, before Ronan chimed in and said: “That’s what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right ladies?”.
“I’m not surprised that the message received as much attention that it got,” Mescal told Kielty.
“She’s more often than not the most intelligent person in the room. She was spot on, hit the nail on the head and it’s also good that messages like that are kind of gaining traction. That’s a conversation that we should absolutely be having on a daily basis.”
He previously described his nose as “kind of Roman” when speaking to Vanity Fair and spoke to Kielty about how it helped him to land the role.
“This nose caused me so much hassle in secondary school. This was the bane of my life and then eh, well thank God for whatever genetics that have granted me this nose,” he said.