Orchestral chords blasted across cobbles lit by flickering flames as the Irish premiere of Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II arrived to the Light House Cinema in Dublin on Thursday night. The crowd joined in traditional cries of “Olé, olé!” Freshly minted Irish heroes such as swimmer Daniel Wiffen arrived to savour the third-century mayhem.
The sequel to Scott’s Oscar-winning smash generated its own excitement, but the real draw was undoubtedly leading man Paul Mescal. Returning for the event, the Kildare man, despite appearing in a host of acclaimed films, seemed genuinely stunned by the scale of the celebrations.
“This is mental. This feels categorically mental,” he told The Irish Times.
Surely he’s used to it by now. He received an Oscar nomination for Aftersun from 2022. Last year’s All of Us Strangers was a critical smash.
“I haven’t done anything on this scale,” he said, looking around at the scores of cheering fans. “I know what it’s like to get out in front of a film. But this is different. A lot of people must have seen Aftersun and All of Us Strangers. Ha, ha!”
And Normal People. Fans brought copies of Sally Rooney’s novel, the 2020 adaptation of which made him a star, to be signed as he juggled questions good-naturedly. One woman held a framed picture over her head as if it were a religious icon. Earlier on there was a Paul Mescal lookalike competition in the square. That is full-scale movie stardom.
“We go to all of these incredible cities,” Mescal said. “You’re on this train. But this is something that I was never, ever anticipating. I honestly can’t get over it.”
Mescal plays Lucius, son to the lead character of the 2000 original, as he arrives in Rome and, hungry to avenge the death of his wife, finds himself pitted against killer rhinoceroses, deranged baboons and (no joke) man-eating sharks in the Colosseum. Denzel Washington is his sly owner. Pedro Pascal is a general implicated in the annihilation of his hometown. Mescal engages with an important legacy here. Lucius is the grandchild of Marcus Aurelius, played, in the first film, by legendary Limerick man Richard Harris.
“He’s one of the great, great Irish actors,” Mescal said. “And, thankfully, Ridley saw a resemblance. And probably the main reason I am in this film. He’s one of my favourite actors and one of my dad’s favourite actors.”
Gladiator was an enormous hit at the start of the century and went on to win five Academy Awards, including best picture and, for Russell Crowe, best actor. Tentative efforts were made to get a prequel or a sequel up and running in the aftermath, but the project slipped into limbo when DreamWorks, the parent studio, was sold to Paramount in 2006. Scott, the famously dogged, now octogenarian director of Alien and Blade Runner, was never going to give up on the project. It opens on November 15th as one of the big “tentpole releases” of the Christmas season. Many have Mescal pencilled in for a second Oscar nomination.
“I’m really looking forward to it,” Daniel Wiffen, who won bronze and gold at the Paris Olympics, told us. “We watched the first one a week before I went to Paris. My celebration when I won was Gladiator inspired. I have heard there are some water scenes. So we’ll be judging the swimming.”
Mescal appears to have managed his fame with some skill. He was already a respected stage actor when he was cast in Normal People. But the unexpected success of that series during lockdown propelled him to unanticipated heights. He became a fashion icon. He starred opposite Olivia Colman in the Oscar-nominated The Lost Daughter from 2021. Next year we will see him as William Shakespeare in Chloé Zhao film of Maggie O’Farrell’s acclaimed novel Hamnet.
“Hopefully the next thing I do will be very different to this,” he said. “And then what follows that should be its own thing. It’s very easy to think: what’s next? I try and remind myself this is a moment in time for me and my family. And I try to celebrate that as much as possible.”
What’s next tonight?
“We are going to go to dinner when the screenings on,” he told a nearby broadcaster. “And then… Hang on… Does this go out live?”
He then told us what Dublin pub they were off to. But we’ll keep that to ourselves.