Anyone looking to pick a fight with Gladiator II‘s Pedro Pascal may want to think again, according to his co-star Paul Mescal, who speaks about the actor’s physical prowess in a new interview with Empire.
“I think I’d win in a fight between me and Pedro, but he’s deceptive,” said Mescal. “Pedro is one of the funniest men that I know, but he could f**k s**t up. Like, absolutely categorically. There’s a beast in there for sure.”
Mescal’s comments echo those of Pascal, who in an earlier interview with Vanity Fair, said he came to refer to his co-star as “Brick Wall Paul.”
“He got so strong,” recalled the actor. “I would rather be thrown from a building than have to fight him again. To go up against somebody that fit and that talented and that much younger….”
Empire’s cover story on Paramount’s Gladiator II also features commentary from filmmaker Ridley Scott, who called the film “full-bore, brutal action” and “the best thing I’ve ever made.” Mescal’s comments on the film weren’t his first, as he previously looked to manifest a new version of Barbenheimer between Gladiator II and Wicked, both of which open on November 22.
Said Mescal in conversation with Entertainment Tonight: “Wickdiator doesn’t really roll off the tongue does it? I think my preference would probably be Glicked if it has a similar effect to what it did for Barbie and Oppenheimer. It would be amazing ’cause I think the films couldn’t be more polar opposites and it worked in that context previously. So fingers crossed people come out and see both films on opening weekend.”
In Scott’s follow-up to his Oscar-winning 2000 historical epic Gladiator, Mescal takes over the role of Lucius — son of Lucilla (Connie Nielsen), nephew of Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix), and grandson of murdered Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius — who now is a grown man in a story taking place years after the first film ended. After his home is conquered by the tyrannical emperors who now lead Rome, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum and must look to his past to find strength to return the glory of Rome to its people.
Pascal plays Marcus Acacius, a Roman general going toe to toe with Lucius in the Colosseum, with Nielsen, Denzel Washington, Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger among others in the cast.
David Scarpa scripted the pic from his and Peter Craig’s story, which is based on characters created by David Franzoni. Douglas Wick, Scott, Lucy Fisher, Michael Pruss and David Franzoni produced, with Walter Parkes, Laurie MacDonald, Raymond Kirk and Aidan Elliott serving as executive producers.
