Paul Mescal has shot up into the stratosphere of stardom swiftly, and it all started with the Hulu hit drama Normal People. Back in 2020, he and Daisy Edgar-Jones burst onto the scene in this Sally Rooney adaptation, and now they’re both sought-after performers, especially Mescal. Since the show, he has gone on to become an indie darling in the world of movies, and soon he’ll star in his first blockbuster – the historical action flick Gladiator 2. Now, the Gladiator sequel’s director Ridley Scott has shared why he cast the actor in the lead role, and it all goes back to the little miniseries that put him on the map.
With Gladiator 2’s release date a little over a year from now, Ridley Scott opened up about the process of making, and casting, the long-awaited sequel. In the film, Paul Mescal is set to play Lucius, the nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix in Gladiator). When it came to finding his lead, the director explained how Mescal’s first major project, Normal People, helped him realize the actor was the right guy for the job. He told Total Film (via Games Radar):
Can I see Paul Mescal being as big as Russell Crowe? For sure. I watched Normal People. It’s not my kind of show but I saw four episodes in a row – boom, boom, boom. I was thinking, ‘Who the hell is this Paul Mescal?’ And then I watched the whole series. And then, suddenly, Gladiator 2 came up, because the script was working pretty well. And I kept thinking about Paul. And that was it.
Paul Mescal’s performance in Normal People was his introduction to the world; it also immediately made him an in-demand actor. His role in the coming-of-age romance as the soft-spoken aspiring writer Connell was nuanced and raw, and it earned him an Emmy nomination and a BAFTA win. He then went on to star in the Oscar-nominated film The Lost Daughter in 2021, and he got an Academy Award nod for himself because of his performance in 2022’s Aftersun. Basically, this guy is a star, and not only do his accolades prove it, but his raw talent does as well.
Along with having many acclaimed performances on screen, Mescal is also a beloved theater actor. This year, he won an Olivier for his leading role in the West End revival of A Streetcar Named Desire. It turns out, this job is what turned the co-heads of Paramount Studios onto him for Gladiator 2. They said his shirtless scenes in the play were “electric,” and they knew they had “found our guy.”
For Ridley Scott, it seems that this aha moment came while streaming Paul Mescal’s break-out role in Normal People, which totally makes sense. The actor is incredible in the Hulu miniseries, and he has proven his range and ability in all the projects he has starred in since.
While we’ll have to wait a while before we see Gladiator 2 – it’s on the 2024 movie schedule for a November 22 release – there are plenty of Paul Mescal projects coming soon to get excited about. He has two films on the 2023 movie schedule — Foe, which is currently playing in theaters, and All of Us Strangers, which will hit cinemas on December 22. Also, you can always stream Normal People with a Hulu subscription to witness the work that helped land this actor the starring role in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator sequel.