CinemaGladiator 2: How Ridley Scott helped Paul Mescal overcome ‘nervousness’ when filming?Gladiator 2 was the first big-budget film in the career of Paul Mescal, known for projects such as Normal People and Aftersunhoje at 11:14

In the first big-budget and large-scale film of his career, Paul Mescal I was very nervous on the first day of filming Gladiator 2but the veteran director Ridley Scott helped him deal with the anxiety of starring in a project of this size.

In a question and answer session after a special screening of the film, which premieres on November 14, 2024 in Brazilian cinemas, Mezcal remembered how he felt when he stepped onto the film set for the first time.

“The first day on set was me and Pedro [Pascal]and we were consciously kept in the tents, sort of outside the city walls. We were sitting in the tents and I was smoking a cigarette, and we were kind of marching around the place and Ridley come in with a cigar,” he said (via People).

“I was absolutely shitting myself. And he looked at me and said, ‘Are you nervous?’ And I… didn’t know what the appropriate response was,” he continued. “So I was like, ‘Ah.’ He said, ‘Your nervousness is not at all good for me.’ Then [ele] takes us out.”