During a special screening at Paramount Studios on Friday, Gladiator II Stars Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen and Fred Heckinger debuted their new film and spoke about their experiences working on the Ridley Scott sequel.
In the film, Mescal plays the adult Lucius Verus II, nephew of Emperor Commodus played by Joaquin Phoenix in the original film. Forced into slavery, Lucius returned to Rome to fight not as a ruler but as a gladiator, seeking revenge and power, seeking to return the glory of Rome to its people.
“I think Lucius represents something to me that I’ve never done before, like a guy who’s very up front in two and a half hours,” Mescal said of taking on the title role. “I’ve never done this before, it’s something lurking inside of me, something more full of things that people have never seen.”
Washington also plays a prominent role in the film as Macrinus, a wealthy arms dealer and former gladiator who plots to take control of Rome. The actor joked during the Q&A: “He’s misunderstood. He’s a good guy.
“He tried to take advantage of everyone. He would take advantage of his mother, he would take advantage of his own children; his soul power was exhausted, there was not much left. He was in bed with the devil,” Washington continued, explaining Scott made their job easy by building life-size sets while filming in Malta. “When you walk around, you’re in Rome with what seems like 10,000 extras and horses. It’s fiction, it’s game, it’s fun; just put on your gear, put on your dress, and off you go , that’s how I look at it. I put on this dress and these rings and I’m going crazy.
Mescal also spoke about his physical and emotional transformation into the character, joking that he “had a naive idea at the beginning, where I thought, ‘I might play a normal-looking gladiator.'” He later realized , “I always saw him like a dog, like a man fighting desperately to survive,” and for most of the film, “he didn’t really care about his own life or death.”
this ordinary people The star told a story about being seated in the production tent on the first day of filming when Scott came in with a cigar. “I was just kidding myself, and he looked at me and said, ‘Are you nervous?’ I didn’t know what the appropriate answer was, so I said, ‘Ugh. ” He was like, “Your neurosis doesn’t do me any good. “Walking out, the cameras were rolling,” Mescal recalled, as the crowd erupted in laughter.
To end the conversation, Mescal noted that the sequel, which comes 24 years after the original, “carries on the legacy of the first film with a strong sense of pride and honor, but I think the direction it’s headed is through the roof.”
“I think it was made by Ridley Scott, the only person who could touch it, and personally, as a friend of his and a long-time admirer of his, I think it’s the most recent thing I’ve seen One of his best works,” the actor added. “I’m very proud of his job, my job, and everyone who sits here and doesn’t sit here. I don’t think anyone can take that away from us.
Gladiator II Releases November 22nd.
