The actor revealed by the series Normal People and the movie After sun shines in Gladiator 2, where he embodies a new form of virility, more sensitive and less brutal.
On the poster, you barely notice his face. His arms, on the other hand, muscular and robust, attract the eye. Just like his knees covered in blood and sweat. Favorite of Gen Z (born between 1997 and 2012), Paul Mescal transformed himself into a Greek statue to play the hero of Gladiator IIin theaters this Wednesday. A film that will make him a world star.
“I'm not going to see Gladiator II for its historical fidelity, but because Paul Mescal is sexy”, summed up American critic Zoë Rose Bryant last month on X. “I have the pleasure of confirming to you that Paul Mescal (…) was never as sexy as in Gladiator II“, added British journalist Charlie Duncan on X.
A new craze for this 28-year-old Irish actor, known until now for his roles as tender and vulnerable men, who was praised for his “insane sensitivity” and his “magnetic acting” at the start of the year by the magazine Three Colors. With Gladiator IIhis first blockbuster, and the sequel to a cult film that marked a generation, Paul Mescal passes the test by fire while leaving his comfort zone.
“He cries beautifully”
Paul Mescal belongs with Timothée Chalamet (Dune) et Josh O’Connor (Challengers) to a new generation of Hollywood male stars who are contributing to the renewal of traditional representations of virility on screen. “He has a very rare and specific kind of masculinity (…) He cries beautifully,” the magazine described GQ a few weeks ago.
Spotted in 2020 in the miniseries Normal PeoplePaul Mescal moved the cinema with After sun (2022), in the shoes of a divorced father suffering from depression. A role that earned him an Oscar nomination. Last February, he was featured in Without ever knowing us. Another moving drama where he plays a man who will bring his neighbor out of his loneliness by forming a romantic relationship with him.
Paul Mescal claims this softer and more vulnerable approach to masculinity on screen. “I like things, starting with feelings, to be largely suggested. It is always emotion that must take precedence. Emotion and its mysteries,” he declared in February 2023 in First. See it in Gladiator IIa brutal peplum confronting rabid animals with bare hands, is surprising.
“We can see (the first Gladiator) as a very mascu and macho film,” admitted the actor in GQ. “But in fact, if it works so well, it's because it's a kind of action melodrama. It's really poignant, all the violence is motivated by love and betrayal.” A dimension that we find in Gladiator IIwhich makes the most of Paul Mescal's ability to play broken men.
Literary Gladiator
In Gladiator IIPaul Mescal plays Lucius, the son of Maximus (Russell Crowe) and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), the daughter of Emperor Marcus Aurelius. Having become a slave then a gladiator under the orders of Macrinus (Denzel Washington), he wants to avenge the death of his wife, killed by general Acacius (Pedro Pascal), and to reform Rome, corrupted by the reign of two decadent twin emperors, Caracalla and Geta .
Despite a darker and more brutal story than in the first part, Paul Mescal does not disappoint his fans and remains faithful to the sensitive virility that he has defended since his beginnings. Lucius is nothing like Maximus, who was a pure war machine driven by his desire for revenge. Lucius, for his part, dreams of reforming Roman society and pleads for the project of a just and equitable society, imagined by his grandfather the Emperor Marcus Aurelius.
And if Lucius knows how to use swords as well as Maximus, he also shows more sophistication. He impressed the court of Caracalla and Geta by revealing his hidden talent for poetry and quoted the poet Virgil several times. A sign of a certain elegance, a ring adorns her little finger. Without forgetting his alchemy with Pedro Pascal, which brings a hint of homoeroticism, absent from the first part.
Ancient statue body
Like Warner Bros., which relied at the start of the year on an ultra-glamorous promotion for the very cerebral A second part by Denis Villeneuve, Paramount made Paul Mescal's sex appeal the main attraction of the film, which cost a whopping $250 million. The posters thus fully exploit the resemblance between the actor and the statues of Roman antiquity.
Gladiator film obliges, it is more his knees than his abdominal muscles which are at the center of the promotion. A rare occurrence in Hollywood where the musculature of the arms and torso has always been highlighted, from Marlon Brandon in A Tramway Named Desire at Glen Powell in Everything except you. This year, alone Challengerslocated in the world of tennis, has relied on the athletic knees of its star Josh O'Connor.
For Paul Mescal, it's an opportunity. Few actors in Hollywood wear shorts as well as he does – let alone gladiator skirts. GQ understood this well, which recently photographed him in leather shorts. The photos, which have gone viral, are reminiscent of other photos of the actor which made the rounds on social networks at the beginning of the year.
Targeted by British paparazzi, Paul Mescal was photographed in sports shorts in the streets of London. “In 2024, the impact of Mescal on the length of men's shorts around the world will be roughly equivalent to that of global warming on sea levels,” quipped GQ not long ago. A phenomenon which should continue in cinemas from this Wednesday.
