Paul Mescal will attend the Irish premiere of the highly-anticipated Ridley Scott blockbuster Gladiator II next month.
The Oscar-nominated Maynooth star will appear at the premiere of the long-awaited sequel to Scott’s 2000 Russell Crowe-starring epic on Thursday, 7 November at the Light House Cinema in Dublin.
Speaking to GQ magazine ahead of the film’s release, the 28-year-old Irish actor joked of filming the high-octane action film: “The only thing I will forever be angry at Ridley for is his deep desire to shoot at the f***ing peak of summer, as a pasty Irish boy who does not do well in the heat, in armour, covered in fake tan and sweat, rolling around.
“Those fights were intense.”
Presenting our November cover star: Paul Mescal.
The shorts get shorter. The roles get bolder. The fans grow ever more ravenous. Now, Paul Mescal is trading his indie tears for blockbuster blood as the centerpiece of Ridley Scott’s #GladiatorII
🔗: https://t.co/eBd8iNHCCH pic.twitter.com/k8IvfwSpMk
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) October 15, 2024
The Normal People and Aftersun star is taking on his first major Hollywood role in the blockbuster which is set 20 years after the events of the original movie.
The action follows Mescal’s Lucius, the now-grown-up son of Lucilla, played by Connie Nielsen, and his fight for survival under the rule of tyrannical general Acacius (Pedro Pascal).
Mescal did not seem phased by the pressure that comes with leading such a huge movie, which has a reported budget of between $250 and $310 million dollars.
“I know Gladiator is by far and away the biggest thing I’ve done in terms of a public-facing responsibility, and the amount of people that are going to get to it,” he told the magazine.
“But I think I’ve now built in personal infrastructure where I know the map of what I want to be as an actor. So it’s not the be-all and end-all.”
During the interview, Mescal spoke about the intrusion into his private life that has intensified as his fame has grown.
“I mean, the speculation has been kind of mad for the last x amount of years,” he said. “I’m not comfortable inviting any access into that part of my life.
“How I am in my private life is so precious to me because I get very little of it, and it might be public interest, but it’s not public-obligated information.”
He also addressed last year’s TikTok rumours that he would run away from dates in the park.
He said he and his siblings saw the videos when they were home for Christmas.
“We were looking at the videos and we were p***ing ourselves at it. Categorically untrue. And we were laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing,” he said.
Paul Mescal responds to the rumors about him running away from dates: “We were pissing ourselves at it. Categorically untrue. And we were laughing, laughing, laughing, laughing.”
🔗: https://t.co/eAo6Ci6yA6 pic.twitter.com/5eyTqpwztb
— GQ Magazine (@GQMagazine) October 15, 2024
“And the one thing that upset me was that I was in the kitchen, I remember my mum looking at the videos and she was getting upset. Isn’t that devastating? I was like, Oh, it’s funny to us – my brother, me, my sister – because we know that this is the way the internet works. It’s hilarious.”
Mescal added: “If it was true, it’d be f***ing bad, but as a rumour, it’s funny. Then I was like, Oh, if you’re a mother, her impulse is to come out and be like, ‘He wouldn’t do this.'”
Gladiator II is set for release on 15 November 2024.
