Paul Mescal reveals he was cast in Gladiator II after 30-minute Zoom call

The Irish actor Paul Mescal has revealed he was cast in Gladiator II after a 30-minute Zoom call.

Mescal made the comments on The Graham Norton Show, to be broadcast on Friday on BBC One. The 28-year-old stars alongside Denzel Washington, who also appeared on Norton’s programme, in the sequel to the Ridley Scott blockbuster, being released 24 years after the first film.

Mescal’s appearance in Gladiator II is his first major Hollywood role after a rapid rise following his breakout performance in the 2020 BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s novel Normal People.

Talking about how he got the role, Mescal told Norton: “Ridley does not waste time – I thought there would be camera tests and auditions, but we Zoomed for half an hour, spoke for 10 mins about the part and then 20 minutes about Gaelic football, his dog and his wife.

“I thought there would be more, but he called a few weeks later to offer me the part. I think he just goes by instinct on set and off and I’m very glad that’s the way it went.”

After his role in Normal People, Mescal starred opposite Olivia Colman in The Lost Daughter, Emily Watson in God’s Creatures and won acclaim for the father-daughter drama Aftersun.

Gladiator was a global hit in 2000, making $460m worldwide and winning five Oscars, including best picture, and best actor for Russell Crowe.

Talk of a sequel or prequel began in 2001 but stalled. Scott claimed that Crowe wanted to return, despite his character being dead, hoping to include a fantastical element in the follow-up.

Mescal plays the grandson of Richard Harris’s Emperor Marcus Aurelius from the first film, who was killed by his son Commodus, played by Joaquin Phoenix. Crowe’s character was also killed by Phoenix’s at the end of the film.

Crowe has said he has reservations about a sequel in which he does not feature. In an interview on the US podcast Kyle Meredith With …, Crowe said: “I’m slightly uncomfortable, the fact that they’re making another one, you know? Because of course, I’m dead, and I have no say in what gets done.

“A couple of things that I’ve heard, I’m like: ‘No, no, no. That’s not in the moral journey of that particular character.’ But you know, I can’t say anything. That’s not my place. I’m six feet under. So we’ll see what that is like.”