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Academy Award-nominee Paul Mescal fears that starring in the Ridley Scott-helmed Gladiator 2 will make him wildly famous, Variety reported.
The Irish actor already has a devoted fanbase due to his roles in the 2020 miniseries Normal People, 2022's Aftersun for which he was nominated for a Best Actor Oscar and the most recent All of Us Strangers opposite Andrew Scott. However, being the lead in Gladiator 2 could propel his fame to even greater heights.
Mescal is surrounded by veteran heavyweights such as Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington. And he's also taking over as lead actor from the original movie's Russell Crowe. Crowe won his Best Actor Oscar for his role as Maximus Decimus Meridius in the 2000 movie.
Is he ready for this kind of fame?
“I don't know what the difference will be,” he told The Times UK.
Mescal continued, “Maybe that’s naive? Is it just that more people will stop you in the street? I’d get profoundly depressed if that’s so and hope it isn’t true. I’ll have an answer next year, but if [the film] impacts my life in that way, I’ll be in a bad spot. I’d have to move on and do an obtuse play nobody wants to see.”
He said that he takes the acting profession “very seriously” and isn't in it for the cloud. This is also why the idea of having a certain number of social media followers is taken into consideration during the casting process confounds him.
“What are we doing this for?” Mescal asked.
“It scares me greatly. Acting should never be reduced to numbers of Instagram followers,” he continued.
He also voiced his disagreement over calling films and TV shows as content.
“That's a filthy word. It's not ‘content', it's f***ing work. I’m not being snobby, but there are two concurrent industries. One that works with a lack of care and artistic integrity. Go nuts, make stuff with Instagram followers as a factor, whatever … But the other is what’s always been there, the craft of film-making, directing, lighting and production design. That keeps artists alive. And audiences want to be challenged,” the actor explained.
When he spoke to Esquire UK last year before the SAG-AFTRA strike, he said he didn't ask Crowe to talk about the Gladiator sequel because the movie's storyline no longer involves the General. The movie is over 20 years old, but spoiler alert: he died at the end of the film. Mescal will be playing the grown up Lucius, Emperor Commodus' (Joaquin Phoenix) nephew in the original movie.
“I don't know what we would talk about. Like, I'd love to hear his stories from filming, but the character is, like, totally separate,” he stated.
For his part, Crowe didn't think Mescal needed to talk to him about the film. He even discouraged the press from asking him questions about the sequel.
“It has nothing to do with me. In that world, I am dead. Six feet under,” he said.
True, however, Lucius lives on in Paul Mescal. Gladiator 2 is set to premiere in cinemas on Nov. 22.
