After the run, Mescal will have a few months off before heading into production this summer on
Gladiator 2,which will shoot in Europe. Mescal was
hand-picked to star in the sequel by Ridley Scott, who is back at the reins from where his 2000 best picture winner left off. Contrary to rumors of gladiatorial sparring among Hollywood’s leading men, Mescal says he did not have to audition for the lead role of adult Lucius, depicted in the original as the young nephew of Commodus, the Roman Emperor played by Joaquin Phoenix. He simply took a meeting with the 85-year-old directing legend in which Scott “discussed the parameters of the story. Then, after the fact, I was given a script,” Mescal says. “And I’m so proud I get to make it. It’s an intimidating feat. It’s something I’m nervous about but something I feel like I can do.”
I ask what kind of transformation his body — just a bit thicker than a competitive swimmer’s build — might have to undergo to play a gladiator.
“With films like this and superhero films, there is sometimes a focus on that,” he says, “which I don’t find that interesting. 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. Sometimes I see films and I’m like, ‘That person doesn’t look real.’ “