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Filming is currently underway for Gladiator 2, the long-awaited sequel to Ridley Scott’s Academy Award-winning 2000 blockbuster. The historical drama stars Irish actor Paul Mescal as a now-adult Lucius, the nephew of Joaquin Phoenix’s Roman Emperor Commodus from the original film.
Naturally, as the film’s lead, the role requires Mescal to get into gladiator-esque shape. And it appears to be an endeavor the 27-year-old is taking very seriously. To that point, a behind-the-scenes video of Mescal working out went viral to an absolutely parched internet this week, and it’s not hard to see why.
In the short clip, which may have come from Mescal’s personal trainer’s Instagram page (but has since been removed), the Normal People actor is seen executing standing dumbbell rows, shirtless, with every muscle popping on display.
The video can be seen in the below tweet—just one of many—which has since been viewed nearly two million times.
PAUL MESCAL TRAINING FOR GLADIATOR pic.twitter.com/TD7lNrjxrQ
— lover’s discourse (@spikejnze) June 21, 2023
But while everyone else might be obsessed with his Gladiator 2 body, Mescal was nonplussed while discussing his upcoming workout regime in an interview with The Hollywood Reporter back in February.
When asked what kind of transformation his body would have to go through to play a gladiator, Mescal—who admitted to quitting social media last year—brushed off the question as unimportant, in the grand scheme of things, in relation to the role he was preparing for.
“With films like this and superhero films, there is sometimes a focus on that, which I don’t find that interesting” he explained. “Of course there’s a physical robustness required for the character, but past that, I’m not interested. This guy’s got to fight and got to be a beast. And whatever that looks and feels like is right for me, is what it’s going to be. Sometimes I see films and I’m like, ‘That person doesn’t look real.'”
Well for what it’s worth, it seems as though he’s got the beast part down. Gladiator 2, which also stars Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal, and Joseph Quinn, is scheduled to be released on November 22, 2024.
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