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Gladiator II star Paul Mescal breaks down his training routine in preparation for the role of Lucius Verus. The younger version of the character was played by Spencer Treat Clark in the original Gladiator, with Mescal being recast as an older Lucius for the sequel.
While speaking with Empire magazine, Mescal explained his routine, which included training six days a week in 45-minute bursts, overseen by “the best trainer, who knows I don’t have a huge amount of patience, and he could see it in my eyes that after a certain point I was like, ‘Get me out of here!'” Mescal also clarified that he want there to be a limit and did not want to “go down the whole 300 avenue,” referring to the Spartans warriors in Zack Snyder’s film. Check out the rest of Mescal’s explanation below:
I had always had a kind of latent ambition to do something that was more muscular and physical. From a selfish side of things, I wanted to surprise an audience, because I knew that I have this kind of role within me. When this came up, I was like, “This is something that I don’t think anybody who’s seen the work that I’ve done previously will be expecting,” and it’s Ridley Scott.
When I was first cast I had this idea of like, “You know what? I’m just gonna make gladiators look normal.” But the closer I got [to filming] I thought that would be me getting in the way of the story.
How do they survive this level of violence that we have no real comprehension of today in a sporting context? The only way you can do that is if you’re robust and able to take the impact of near-death experiences on a day-to-day basis. So then it just meant lifting heavy things for a long time and eating lots of chicken.
This ideal image that has been informed by superhero films – that was something I was keen to avoid. Because superheroes don’t exist, but gladiators did. We don’t really know what they looked like, but they were prime athletes raised in stables, and they trained every day. So I was like, “Let’s just go back to what I’m used to – which is Gaelic football training.”
More to come…
Source: Empire
