‘I got a butt’: Gladiator 2 cast’s physical training was harder than you imagine

Ridley Scott knows how to shoot action and proves it once again in Gladiator II. The arena scenes are particularly impressive, with wild animal fights and a duel between Paul Mescal and Pedro Pascal. For these different sequences, the actors had to prepare hard, in particular Paul Mescal, who was present in all the intense scenes of the film.

Six months before the start of filming, the star of the film began to exercise intensively – six days a week – and a very special diet – he had four meals a day. Paul Mescal is revealed for the role of Lucius Diversity Gained 9 kilos of muscle. By the end of filming, he had to lose a total of 11 kilos for his next project, The History of Sound.

The actor also had to learn to fight with a sword thanks to the coach, but also to ride a horse, against the wishes of the director Ridley Scott. Two weeks before shooting the horse chase at the end of the film, the filmmaker refused to let Paul Mescal go on the ride himself to avoid an accident. The actor, who had been training for months, decided to do it anyway.

Don’t do such things at my age.

in turn Pedro Pascal reveals that noNever more prepared for a movie than Gladiator II“.”And it didn’t change anything, I still got a kick– he says during an interview with AlloCiné. I would never be the same after that. Don’t do such things at my age.“

The actor talks about this duel as a scene “physical language“Where all the words go through the body. The hardest part was getting the shots without returning them.”I was replaying this fight more“, he adds.

As for the animal fight scenes, specifically against the baboons, Paul Mescal Explains, always for Diversitythat real trained stuntmen played monkeys on set. The rhinoceros was a life-size remote controlled mechanical installation – later replaced with digital technology.

AlloCiné comments collected by Thomas Desroches, London, 27 October 2024.

You can see Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II in theaters