It may be all in a day’s work for pros like Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal, but becoming a warrior in Gladiator II was still an uphill, ahem, battle. So much so that both stars separately told Entertainment Weekly it was the most physically demanding shoot they’d ever experienced.
The highly anticipated follow-up to Ridley Scott‘s 2000 epic starring Russell Crowe, Gladiator II follows Mescal’s Lucius after he’s captured from his home in Numidia — where his mother had sent him for protection — by Pascal’s General Acacius and taken back to Rome, where he seeks revenge.
As the film’s main protagonist and gladiator, Lucius sees the most battles both in and out of the arena, facing off against vicious baboons, rhinos, and even sharks, not to mention his human opponents. As Rome’s head general, Acacius also gets his fair share of action, even fighting Lucius at one point.
Mescal says his favorite confrontation is the film’s final battle, the details of which shall not be spoiled here, “but the most challenging and physically the toughest was the fight with the gladiator who comes off the rhino.”
Watch Gladiator II‘s Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal debate who’s the better warrior: ‘Do you want us to fight?’
The rhino wasn’t the issue — the crew made a 3D print of a rhino that was controlled by a radio remote control. But the weather and shooting schedule was a different beast entirely.
“We shot that for about two or three days, but the heat was just…. My Irish blood does not function with Ridley’s shooting schedule, which is like sun up to sun down, hottest parts of the day,” Mescal, 28, adds with a laugh. “It was brutal, the fight. I grew up playing sports, so I would consider myself pretty robust and happy to throw myself around, but it was just the [arena] itself became like a radiator. I was borderline throwing up, irritable, just hardcore. Between takes, I was firing ice straight down my back.”
It’s the first big action epic of Mescal’s career, so perhaps it’s no surprise it was the most physical role he’s had to date. But Pascal has titles like The Mandalorian, Game of Thrones, The Last of Us, and Wonder Woman 1984 under his belt, so it is a bit more surprising to hear him admit that Gladiator II was his most physically challenging role yet.
“I’m getting up there, or I’m not getting up there; I am up there. I’m looking down from up there,” Pascal, 49, jokes. “And a lot of work has been really physical, and it really kind of takes its toll. And this definitely became the most physical and the most exciting, and I loved that, but it was more challenging than it’s ever been for me. And so I would say that the action [was the hardest part of making the film].”
Still, it gives Pascal something new to (jokingly) brag about: “The distinguishing and incomparable aspect of the whole experience would be getting my ass kicked by Paul Mescal. Elder abuse, we call it.”
For Mescal, all the hard work and ass-kicking was absolutely worth it. “I loved how distinct the fights are from each other, and what I’m really proud of is how you can feel the cumulation of the violence on his body as the film progresses,” he says. “The fights aren’t like slick swordplay. You can feel towards the end what Lucius says — it’s about survival. It’s like your body’s going to accumulate all this punishment. And it’s about holding onto that as the film progresses. And I think it’s much more interesting to see somebody who psychologically has an aptitude for survival rather than somebody who’s innately skilled. And I think Lucius just has a dog in him that will perpetually survive environments that other people shouldn’t. So I’m proud of them all in different ways.”
Lauren Huff
