MANY cinephiles regard Ridley Scott’s Gladiator as one of their favourite movies. Collecting five Oscars – including Best Picture and Best Actor for its star Russell Crowe – and becoming the second highest grossing film in 2000, the historical epic began a new millennium of filmmaking with an unforgettable story of ambition, corruption, bloodshed and warfare in Ancient Rome.
Now, almost 25 years later, a new generation of cinema-goers are being treated to their own slice of Roman glory as Scott rebuilds the Colosseum for a monumental sequel.
Co Kildare actor Paul Mescal, whose career has gone from strength to strength since he shot to fame in 2020’s BBC adaptation of Sally Rooney’s Normal People, seems to begin a new chapter of blockbuster filmmaking as he portrays Lucius in Gladiator II.
“When Ridley comes knocking, you just say yes,” says the 28-year-old, who was nominated for the Best Actor Oscar for 2022’s Aftersun.
“It’s definitely been a career highlight for me to watch the way the master’s brain works, and he was incredibly generous about sharing his knowledge and talent with me.”
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Set almost 20 years after the death of Maximus, the sequel reveals that him to be the real father of Lucius, who is now living with his wife and child in Numidia, far from Rome. However, when the Roman army invades his home, he’s taken prisoner and forced to follow in his father’s legendary footsteps.
Angry, exiled, abandoned, Lucius is a lost prince who finds himself wanting to destroy the city that both made him and betrayed him.
Gladiator II marks Mescal’s first foray into action blockbusters – until now, he’s been known for touching, emotional dramas like Aftersun and All Of Us Strangers – but the weight and scale of this undertaking is not lost on him.
“It holds a huge amount of weight for a vast number of people across the world, and the scale of it is huge,” Mescal says.
“It’s not like any other role I’ve played. Going from independent features to a blockbuster studio picture was intimidating, until I realised that acting is acting is acting, regardless of the context.”
But it wasn’t just Scott that Mescal impressed – decorated actor Denzel Washington, widely regarded as one of the best actors of his generation, says that “the sky’s the limit” for the Irish star.
Going from independent features to a blockbuster studio picture was intimidating, until I realised that acting is acting is acting, regardless of the context
— Paul Mescal
“I can only imagine the pressure he felt,” says Washington (69) who plays slave-turned-gladiator mentor Macrinus in the film.
“I don’t know if I could have handled it, because you know you’re going to be compared – ‘Oh, it’s not like the other one’.
“No matter what you do, you’re not going to be able to win. And he still won! So good for him. Good for him! The sky’s the limit for him.”
You know you’re going to be compared – ‘Oh, it’s not like the other one’. No matter what you do, you’re not going to be able to win. And Paul still won! The sky’s the limit for him.
— Denzel Washington
Like its predecessor, Gladiator II is also a political drama, its thrilling fights partnered with scenes of manipulation and manoeuvring by those in want of power over Rome.
Lucius’s mother Lucilla, daughter of the former emperor Marcus Aurelius, has watched Roman politics unravel, both through the rule of her brother, Commodus, played by Joaquin Phoenix in the 2000 film, and in the intervening years between the events of Gladiator and Gladiator II.
Rome is now under the control of Emperors Geta and Caracalla, played by Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger respectively, maniacal brothers who rule in unhinged, unpredictable ways – with the help of a pet monkey.
“Marcus Aurelius was the last emperor of these four emperors who had created this absolute golden age of Rome, of enormous economic growth and lots of innovation, and even further frontiers, even more people folded in under this great idea of Rome,” says Connie Nielsen (59), who reprises the role of Lucilla.
“After the death of Commodus, she’s just watched as one charlatan after another has taken over. The Praetorian Guard is basically auctioning off the rights to the kingdom, so to speak, to whoever pays the most to them.
“And so what you have is this absurd mirror of what Rome was supposed to be.”
Because of its political through-line, it almost feels like an understatement to call Gladiator II an action film. Peppered with emotion, psychology, and historical drama, it’s got a real weight to it – a weight only made stronger by the incredibly inventive set pieces of a scale that can only come from the mind of Ridley Scott.
As Washington says, describing the feeling on set, “it was watching a master orchestrate a masterpiece”.
One such scene is a gripping mano a mano arena fight between the gladiators and gigantic, terrifying baboons – a scene which, Scott says, was actually inspired by a video of a real-life baboon attack on tourists in South Africa.
“It was absolute chaos,” says the South Shields-born director, 86, of the attack that inspired his arena brawl.
“Baboons are carnivores. They will attack people and they’re about 40 pounds of solid muscle. They can rip a person’s arm off.”
He envisioned 12 starving baboons being released into the arena, using stunt actors to perform the high-octane fight before using CGI to create ferocious apes.
“I told our stunt coordinator, Nikki Berwick, that I was going to need some short people – no taller than 5ft 5,” Scott remembers.
“I wanted them all in black with masks painted to look like baboons… We went into a full-bore battle between men and apes, then we transformed the stunt people into realistic baboons with CGI.”
The lengths the crew on Gladiator II went to, to create an environment that was as immersive for the actors as it is for audiences were palpable, Denzel Washington says.
“It made it easy, because everybody was in the right period gear. Even one major street we had – everywhere you look was Rome.
“No green screen, horses kicking up the dust, and people begging – just like America!” he jokes.
“Being on set with thousands of soldiers in beautiful costumes and brilliant colours, and swords, and shields, and horses made this seem like more than a movie for me,” continues Washington, who describes Gladiator II as the biggest film he’s ever been on.
“It’s a world unto itself. People are going to be blown away by what they see.”
Gladiator II is in cinemas now.
