Strength and honor! See all the photos from Entertainment Weekly’s ‘Gladiator II’ cover shoot

The odd couple

Pascal describes his character, Acacius, as “the Roman general,” while Mescal plays a lieutenant in the Numidian army — and there’s no love lost between the two. “He represents everything that I hate about the Roman Empire,” Mescal says of Acacius.

Pascal explains that Rome was in the process of expanding by conquering more territories like Numidia. “They’re consuming what they can and for what? Just to gain more and more power,” Pascal says.

That drive for power is led by Rome’s young twin emperors, who use Acacius and his army as a tool for expanding their territory. “It unravels through the film that I’ve kind of miscalculated who I think Acacius is,” Mescal teases.

Right on cue, Pascal jokes with faux dramaticism, “He’s so misunderstood. His character misunderstands my character just like Paul misunderstands me.”

Big sandals to fill

Mescal, previously known for indie fare such as Aftersun and All of Us Strangers, isn’t fazed by the massive scope of Gladiator II — in fact, he was hungry for the challenge.

“It’s a weird thing,” he says. “It obviously feels like a massive step in a totally different direction to what I’ve done for the last, say, five years since [hit BBC series] Normal People came out.”

While he acknowledges feeling some imposter syndrome entering this “uncharted territory,” he says his anxiety would be “through the roof” if he didn’t feel like he was right for the part. “First off, I wouldn’t have been able to do it,” he admits. “But when it came my way, I felt like I was right for it and as ready as you could be for doing something on a bigger scale, and I had an appetite for it.”

Humble beginnings

Pascal recalls his earliest conversation with Scott about playing Acacius when the film was in “a developmental draft phase.” Says Pascal, “Of course, just getting to meet Ridley Scott, I didn’t know what exactly [the project] was, and he wanted to tell me what it was. I thought to myself, ‘I don’t give a s— what it is. I just want to sit down with Ridley for a few minutes, or what turned out to be more than an hour of delightful conversation.”

He adds, “And whatever it turns out to be, I’m screwed because I know he is going to convince me to do it.”

“My wee son”

Pascal jokingly refers to Mescal, 28, as his “wee son” at EW’s cover shoot, where it’s all love — clearly. “I am really excited for everyone to see Paul. I’m sorry, but it has to be said, you are sensational in the movie,” he says to his costar before joking, “and pretty easy on the eyes.”

Pascal adds, “He worked so hard, and I got to see that happen in front of me and on the day and lead, with Ridley, this enormous crew and this enormous cast. I think people are going to love it.”

“That’s very kind,” Mescal replies. “I think for a lot of us, from the actors, we haven’t worked on a film on that scale. And I think there was a little bit of trauma bonding that went on, kind of feeling like total imposter syndrome within it all. But to see your friends operate at that level on a film of that scale, doing incredible work, I think, across the board…. It’s rooted, it has the scale, but I think it also has the pathos and the performances. And I personally think it’s one of Ridley’s greatest pieces of work, which is no mean feat.”

High anxiety

On his first day of filming, Mescal says Scott came up to him, smoking a cigar, and asked if he was nervous. When Mescal anxiously laughed and said, “No,” Scott clapped him on the back and said, “Your nerves are no good to me.”

“What I loved about that is that it’s so true of any artistic pursuit, regardless of the scale,” Mescal shares. “It’s like you’re the person whose turn it is now. Your nerves are actually a waste of time and energy and resources and everything. I’m not talking about financial resources. I mean artistic resources. Your nerves, if they’re there, are going to get in the way of the thing that a thousand people are here to make.”

A whole new world

Pascal is no stranger to working on major franchises across film and television, but even he was blown away by Gladiator II and the world Scott crafted for his actors to play in.

“It is funny because I think that there’s so much context to the experience of stepping on a really big set for the first time because, as a fanboy from childhood into middle age, there are so many big movies with big set pieces that are imprinted into my imagination,” he says. “And I remember stepping onto the set of Game of Thrones and then on a movie called The Great Wall and a Star Wars set, and it is like the materialization of your wildest dreams as it relates to movies and TV. And yet somehow f—ing Ridley Scott surpasses all of these experiences with the most incredible set I’ve ever been on.”

Fight club

“I would say Lucius is the better fighter,” Mescal says, to Pascal’s mock disdain. “Lucius is the better fighter? Do you want us to fight? Lucius is the better fighter than the general of Rome, who survived decades and conquered all? I mean, it’s just— I fight four men before I get to you, and I call it off!” Pascal says incredulously.

“You don’t think I would do some sort of mature, aged, learned move that would just f—ing end it?” he asks Mescal before adding sarcastically to EW, “Kids, ya know? I love ’em!”

“Ok, let me actually go back on my answer,” Mescal concedes. “I think Acacius might beat Lucius. I think it’s up for debate, let’s just say that.”

Invisible strings

Acacius, who, we learn in the sequel, once served under Crowe’s Maximus, is now husband to the late general’s former flame, Lucilla. Pascal found these two connections to the original Gladiator helpful in crafting his character.

“He is a soldier through and through, and such a good one that he just rose to general because it’s what he’s best at, [plus he has] a moral center around leadership, not power, which I think is very important, to make a distinction between leadership and power — they can be two totally different things. And he’s also a very committed partner to [Lucilla], who is the real deserved leader. As a soldier and as a general, he serves and protects her and her presence and her vision for a better Rome more than he does, obviously, the emperors.”

Like father, like son

When Mescal learned his character is, in fact, Maximus’s son, he was even more thrilled to tackle the role. “I think it probably made me more excited in the sense that the nerves, regardless of the character’s lineage, would exist because of how well received and how brilliant the first film is. So I knew that the character that I was going to be playing was going to be the protagonist. So in any context, it was going to be in the world of what Maximus left behind,” he says.

Elder abuse

Working with Scott was a dream come true, but Pascal says the physical demands were the most challenging aspect of the shoot. “I’m getting up there, or I’m not getting up there, I am up there,” Pascal, 49, jokes. “I’m looking down from up there. And a lot of work has been really physical, and it really takes its toll. This definitely became the most physical and the most exciting, and I loved that, but it was more challenging than it’s ever been for me.”

Besides working with Scott, Pascal jokes, “The distinguishing and incomparable aspect of the whole experience would be getting my ass kicked by Paul Mescal. Elder abuse, we call it.”

A watch party

Some actors refuse to watch their own work, but not Mescal. “I think it’s important as a young actor to watch your work because you have to learn,” he says. “I’d love to get to the point where I don’t, but that is a ways away.”

However, he says he “totally understands the impulse of actors not wanting to watch” their films. “I wouldn’t say by any stretch of the imagination that it’s a comfortable experience, especially the very first time you see something,” he says, adding, “But with this, I feel different. I’m excited to watch this in a big room with my close friends and family on a massive screen with the sound turned up to a hundred and just let it rip.”

Entertainment factor

Pascal cites Crowe’s famous “Are you not entertained?!” line from the original film when asked what he hopes audiences get out of the sequel.

“Just that, the divine experience of entertainment. There’s such a kind of classic experience of entertainment that is so important to going to the movies and really experiencing something and traveling somewhere,” he says. “And no one better than Ridley and this cast to do it.”

Lessons learned

“I learned that I love Ridley,” Mescal says when asked what he took away from the experience of making the film. “I knew that before as a filmmaker, but that if I could take one thing away from [this film, it] is the relationship that I have with him and the admiration that I have for him, not from just his work, but from now knowing him.”

He continues, “The really important thing for me that I learned in terms of a professional side of things is that, of course, the scale is different, but the job feels the same, which I was nervous about, to be honest. I was like, ‘Oh, maybe it’s going to feel different,’ but if you boil it down, the job that I’m doing on say something like this versus a job like Aftersun, the same responsibilities apply to the actor. And I’m grateful for that because I know that territory. And if that remained consistent, I knew that the scale doesn’t matter as much. And I learned that I could do it. Regardless of how the film is received, I know that I can lead a big film for a studio.”