How A Shirtless Stage Performance Helped Paul Mescal Win The Lead Role In Gladiator 2
Over twenty years after Ridley Scott’s Gladiator became a blockbuster and Best Picture winner (among four other Oscar accolades) Paramount is getting ready to bring another historical epic to the big screen with Gladiator 2. One of the most highly-anticipated 2024 movies will see Scott back in the director’s chair, but rather than Russell Crowe, a new champion will emerge: Paul Mescal. Apparently showing some skin on stage led to the high-profile casting.
When the co-heads of Paramount Studios, Michael Ireland and Daria Cercek, recently spoke to the casting process for Gladiator 2. When talking about nabbing Oscar-nominee Paul Mescal for the role of Lucius, they recalled watching the actor star in a West End revival of A Streetcar Named Desire when they made the decision. In Cercek’s words to Variety:
He played Stanley, and there are several moments where he takes off his shirt and it was electric. The ladies in the audience were very vocal, and we were like, ‘I think we’ve found our guy.’
Paul Mescal is indeed something of a heartthrob, especially after his breakout role in 2020’s Normal People mini series, a book adaptation of a popular romance novel. The 27-year-old Irish actor also earned praise for his leading role in A24’s Aftersun, which earned him an Oscar nomination in the Lead Actor category, which is just about always rather stacked and competitive.
Mescal took the West End stage as the iconic role of Stanley Kowalski, memorably played by Marlon Brando in the 1951 film adaptation of the production in early 2022 and earned tons of acclaimed for his take on the role, which the New York Times called a “deeply empathic” approach to the character fueled with “electricity.”
It sounds like between Mescal’s performance and the reaction from the audience to him, they knew they had a star on their hands casting the actor in the role of Lucius for Gladiator 2. The upcoming sequel will star the young man that was saved by Russell Crowe’s Maximus as a grown man. The Gladiator 2 cast list is absolutely stacked, between Danzel Washington, Connie Nielsen, Pedro Pascal, Djimon Hounsou and Stranger Things’ Joseph Quinn as stars.
But, stop asking Russell Crowe if he’s in the movie because he’s been asked enough. If you recall the first Gladiator, the movie ends with Crowe’s Maximus dying during a duel with Joaquin Phoenix’s Commodus at the Colosseum. The sequel began filming this summer, but now faces a setback with the actors’ strike stalling the production.
The production reportedly found a creative way to film despite strikes, but we imagine will have to shut down soon if it hasn’t already. During filming, there have also been reports of crew members getting injured and getting in hot water with PETA over its treatment of horses on set. If Gladiator 2 manages to stay on schedule, the movie is slotted to hit theaters on November 22, 2024.
