When we say “epic”, we mean it – Gladiator II is an extraordinary feat of filmmaking. Director Ridley Scott built sets to emulate Rome in Malta, assembling an arena to mimic the Colosseum. His team made a life-sized statue of Pedro Pascal on a horse. Eighty tents were dedicated to hair and make-up departments on location in Morocco. He effectively built a playground for his actors.
His lead, Paul Mescal, beefed up for the role of Lucius. He’s still the empathetic and loving type we recognise from his roles in Normal People or Aftersun, but as he tells Broadsheet in this five-minute interview, the most challenging part of his role was inhabiting “somebody who psychologically isn’t really afraid to die.”
While Gladiator II’s battle scenes are violent and bloody, and the action is non-stop, the more intimate scenes are where the cast’s performances shine. Denzel Washington plays an ambitious Roman businessman (and we can already hear Oscars talk in the air). Pascal is General Acacius, and husband to Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, who you’ll remember from the first film). And the film’s twin emperors Caracalla and Geta are played by Fred Hechinger (The White Lotus) and Joseph Quinn (Stranger Things).
Broadsheet sat down with Mescal and Hechinger while they were in Sydney, to find out more about the making of this blockbuster and how they prepared for such high-pressure roles.
Hi Fred! Hi Paul! Gladiator II is such an epic film. You play very different characters. How would you describe your characters in three words?
Mescal: Loyal. Relentless. Brave.
Hechinger: Delicious. Sick. Impulsive.
Is there a scene you would like to relive – because it was challenging or fun to make?
Mescal: Working with Denzel for the first time. I could go back to that scene and live there for 100 years. It was just one of those moments as an actor, you don’t even dream of having someone like that opposite you and to have Ridley in charge of the whole thing – I was like, “This is a wild, wild experience.”
Hechinger: Joe [Joseph Quinn] and I did a scene with Pedro [Pascal] and it was one of those days when the sun is about to set and there’s this beautiful gold… It felt like that, it felt like that sunny afternoon feeling. I could also live there.
Ridley Scott builds huge sets to re-create Rome. What was that like, stepping into his arena?
Hechinger: It takes your breath away. My first day [of filming] was walking up the stairs into the Colosseum, and I was speechless. It really is built all around you. You also, I think, become aware of all the gifts that you’re being given: Ridley is directing through the world that he’s built. It means that he really trusts the actors to take on their character and you don’t really need to talk that much about anything else because he’s built that world and those are the directions.
Mescal: I totally second that. It’s an absolute gift. It’s like a super expensive gift. The fact that he’s building this entire world is like you don’t have to imagine that bit – which is a huge part of an actor’s job, to imagine. You’re actually just there with the actors in front of you and that’s your primary focus.
Did the scale of the sets add to the pressure of making this sequel?
Mescal: In moments, yeah. When you see the scale and the amount of labour it takes to build a Ridley Scott film, it does add pressure in moments, for sure.
I wrote down some notes when I was watching the film: one of them was ‘running and yelling’, the other was ‘significantly more monkeys’. There are a lot of things you might have had to prepare for in the role. What was the most challenging thing you did in preparation?
Mescal: To inhabit somebody who psychologically isn’t really afraid to die, I think is something that’s so far removed from anything we’re used to living. And then, even though it’s a big action epic, you’re still finding the truth of what happened to Lucius. He loses his wife so early in the film, and he feels abandoned by his mother, and that’s always the part that will interest me, but it’s also the most challenging part of that character for me.
Hechinger: I really agree with that. Sometimes you think to train to do this or that is going to be the challenging part, but there’s this objectivity or practicality to that: you hunker down and you learn how to ride that horse, or work with that animal – whatever it is. The things that are more vexing, and sometimes at the core of it, are seemingly little, maybe. Suddenly picking up that cup is the weird thing.
Mescal: Or entering a room or something…
Hechinger: Yes, exactly. And I think it’s because there’s a responsibility to the person you’re playing. You’re the only person to protect them and be there for them. All those little things add up and it really matters. Sometimes you find fault in it, and I don’t think you can run from that. I think you have to be uncompromising about it.
You’ve been in Sydney for a hot minute. Have you had an opportunity to enjoy your time here?
Hechinger: We swam!
Mescal: We went to the beach yesterday.
Where did you swim?
Mescal: Coogee Beach.
Hechinger: We landed and immediately swam, it was incredible. I mean any day in salt water is a blessed day.
Gladiator II is in cinemas from November 14.
