Paul Mescal is probably a little too good at what he does.
The 28-year-old actor honed his body For “Gladiator II” According to his personal trainer Tim Blakeley, the filmmakers had him shirtless for as many scenes as possible.
In an interview with The Post, Bleakley also revealed the secret weapon he deployed to help the Irish star get a quick pump on set: Coca-Cola.
Mescal’s show-stopping figure was hard won. The actor had only 12 weeks to get into fighting shape after the director Ridley Scott gave them good news That he will play the role of the film’s hero Lucius. With an already full schedule of performances in Tennessee Williams’s “A Streetcar Named Desire” on London’s West End, time was short.
A blockbuster on the line, Mescal needed the perfect personal trainer to prepare him to face the slings and arrows of the Roman Colosseum.
enter bleakleyRoyal Navy veteran, experienced bodybuilder, personal trainer and owner media physicsA company that specializes in helping actors prepare their body cameras.
The fitness pro has worked out – and worked with – a number of Hollywood body figures, including John Boyega, Luke Evans, Thandiwe Newton and Taron Egerton.
From the beginning, Mescal’s training focused on adding “size and strength”.
“We had to get some muscle tissue on him very quickly,” Blakeley told The Post.
The actor worked out five to six days a week and focused on different body parts in each session. But Mescal didn’t have to spend hours every day pumping iron. In fact, he only needed about 45 minutes to an hour in any given session. As Blakeley explained, it was more than just a waste of time.
“Once you put the body under stress and load, and you get the training response, then any set or rep after that, you’re just burning calories,” he explained. “You can get a body part job done in less than an hour.”
He further added, “Whatever we did in the gym had to be really effective and efficient. You know, we didn’t have time to do stupid things.
Mescal entered the training process with experience as an athlete, having played Gaelic football at a fairly high level, and crucially had the mentality required to achieve results.
“With Paul, no set is wasted. With Paul we literally do a few warm up sets, then we do a feeder set to check his form, do two sets of tasks to failure or close to failure and then we move on to the next exercise,” Blakeley said. Said.
“Paul is one of the hardest-working actors in the business,” the fitness pro said, describing Mescal’s attitude of “get your head down and get it done.”
“He never complained. He was just a complete hard worker. He never missed a single session and whenever he was in the gym, there was no phone outside or anything like that. The phone was in the locker, Trainor recalled.
Mescal sometimes insisted on what his training would involve – although without much success. Blakeley said, “He wanted to know what we were doing, I would tell him what we were doing, and we could chat about that for a little bit, but in the end, I always won.”
After three months of intense training, consume 300 grams of protein per day (Sometimes with gin and tonic), Mescal was ready to enter the fray.
But when the star came to the set, there was just one problem. he saw Very Good.
Blakeley recalled, “Because he looked so good, a lot of his scenes were like, ‘Okay, take the shirt off.’
This presented a challenge, as while most actors only had to be willing to appear in one or two shirtless scenes together, Mescal’s body had to look picture-perfect every day.
“A lot of actors get recognized in movies, like they might have a shower scene where you go, ‘Okay. This is the day we work backwards.’ Because we know it’s coming,” Blakeley explained.
“And you know, we can cut back on the water a little bit; We can carb load the day before the scene,” he continued, citing some strategy trainers who like to photo-prep their clients.
Blakeley said, “But because he had his shirt off so much, you have to keep your body as tight as possible the whole time.”
The physicality of Mescal’s role – in fact, are There are some fight scenes in this movie – The scorching heat the actors faced filming in Malta and Morocco meant hacks like cutting water were out of the question.
“He couldn’t make traditional plans because most of the day was still [that he was shirtless],
But Blakeley has a sweet trick up her sleeve to help pump up Paul before the take.
“Because he likes Coke, if we had a scene that was controllable, I would have him drink some Coke first to get some glycogen in the muscles so you can get a little pump,” the strength coach explained.
Although Blakeley was responsible for helping Mescal sculpt his body, Mescal created the vision of how the body should look.
According to Blakeley, the actor decided to abandon “the Marvel route”, and prioritized athleticism and authenticity instead of what Mescal has stated. “Underwear Model Body.”
“He wanted to feel competent, that’s the word he used,” the instructor recalled.
And Mescal got no push from production. Ridley Scott relied on Mescal’s vision for his character’s physique.
Blakeley shared, “Once I met Paul, he had a great relationship with Ridley – he really trusted him.” “I think [Ridley] In fact Paul was very happy that he was leading the way his character should look.
“And obviously, Russell Crowe didn’t have a Marvel-type physique,” the fitness pro said, referring to the first “Gladiator” movie.
He added, “I felt like there wasn’t really any pressure on him in terms of production.”
The filmmakers had one thing that Blakeley, Mescal, and everyone else agreed on: He had to be bigger and stronger.
“Paul had the main say but he was on board, he wanted to be bigger and stronger,” Blakeley said.
“His character is a very skilled and capable fighter. So with that you needed strength, agility and speed. And he had agility and speed. “He just needed size and strength.”
‘Gladiator II’ will be released in theaters on Friday, November 22.
