Paul Mescal says Saoirse Ronan was 'spot on' over BBC clip as he breathes 'sigh of relief' over Gladiator

ACTOR PAUL MESCAL has said he has been able to take a “big old sigh of relief” after seeing his first Hollywood blockbuster Gladiator II be welcomed by critics.

The Kildare man appeared on the Late Late Show on RTÉ One tonight in the surrounds of a mock Colosseum, where he also touched on a clip that got traction online from a recent appearance he made alongside Saoirse Ronan on Graham Norton’s BBC chatshow, describing Ronan as being “spot on” in her response.

Paul Mescal sat down with host Patrick Kielty to discuss the sequel to the 2000 action movie, directed by Ridley Scott, which became the second-highest grossing film worldwide in 2000.

Mescal is new protagonist Lucius Verus, the estranged son of noblewoman Lucilla (Connie Nielsen, reprising her role from the first film) and nephew of the odious emperor Commodus, played in the first film by Joaquin Phoenix.

“Now that we’re starting to see an audience response, there’s a big old sigh of relief,” Mescal told Kielty tonight on the programme.

“There’s something different about, you assume, the amount of eyeballs that are going to be on this versus anything else I’ve ever done, so there’s a big old exhale”.”

Mescal also confirmed the industry rumour that he didn’t have to audition for the lead role, with director Scott able to “ask for whatever he wants and he generally gets it”.

He added: “I thought we’d have to do camera tests or things like that but he’s very instinctive”.

Ronan hitting ‘the nail on the head’

Speaking about the appearance on the BBC, Mescal said fellow actor Ronan was “spot on” to raise his response to a discussion about safety.

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Ronan lightheartedly called out the response from Mescal and fellow actor Eddie Redmayne, getting a round of applause from the audience for her remarks in the London studio in London.

Redmayne had been speaking about his experience training for the role of an assassin on the TV programme The Day of the Jackal, in which the English actor explained how he had been taught how to use to the end of his phone as a weapon for self defence.

Mescal then questioned who would think to take out their phone to defend themselves in a self-defence situation, to which Ronan responded: “That’s what girls have to think about all the time. Am I right ladies?”

“I’m not surprised that the message received as much attention that it got,” Mescal told Kielty:

“She’s more often than not the most intelligent person in the room. She was spot on, hit the nail on the head and its also good that messages like that are kind of gaining traction. That’s a conversation that we should absolutely be having on a daily basis”.

Normal life

When asked if he is ready for his life to not be any way normal after this movie, Mescal said his career is “the tax I’ll happily pay”, but only up “to a point”.

“I think it’s always magnified at moments like this when you’re out in front of the film,” he explained, “and you’re running around to every city in the world and I think it’s always at its loudest around this junction.

“But then I think, maybe naive of me to think that but you’d hope that the world moves on and then there’s another massive film that comes out and there’s eyes on somebody else.

“At the moment I’m saying that to probably preserve my own santiy but also it’s a by-product of this amazing job that I get to do. If that’s the tax I’ll happily pay it, up and to a point”.

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