'There's a bit of faking it until you make it'

Actor Paul Mescal on entering the Gladiator II arena, building a blockbuster body for his role as fighter Lucius Verus, and heading up an A-list cast of Hollywood's finest stars

- ADAM TANSWELL AND MITYA UNDERWOOD

Irish actor Paul Mescal has stepped into some very big shoes (or maybe it should be sandals?) by taking on the lead role of Lucius Verus in Sir Ridley Scott's new Gladiator II film. The historical epic serves as a sequel to the Oscar-winning version starring Russell Crowe - who played the iconic fighter Maximus Decimus Meridius - and has well and truly catapulted Paul to the upper echelons of Hollywood royalty.

But Paul, 28, who met King Charles on the red carpet at the London premiere of the movie, has had no time to reflect on his achievements, or the resulting fanfare.

Speaking to OK! and other media at the Four Seasons Hotel in Beverly Hills, California, County Kildare's golden boy tells us he's just pleased to be putting "one foot in front of the other".

"Ridley doesn't wait around," Paul says. "I think he was pretty conscious of the fact that he wanted to start with a bang, just to let us know what we were stepping into. For the first day, we shot the opening sequence in Morocco a battle sequence. The key cast were kept in little holding tents and I was walking around with my sword, furiously smoking - just waiting to be summoned to the set.

"Then we hear over the radio that Ridley Scott's coming to say hello and he comes in smoking a cigar. He looks at us and goes, 'Are you nervous?" I wasn't really sure what the appropriate response was, so I think I just made a noise. He then whacked me on my back and said, "Your nerves are no f***ing good to me!" And then he proceeds to turn over the cameras. As we walked on to the set, that's when I saw the scale for the first time.