Paul Mescal was gunning for a particularly dangerous horse stunt In “Gladiator II”, Which created differences between him and director Sir Ridley Scott.
mescal, 28, stars Scott’s sequel The best picture-winning sword-and-sandal epic “Gladiator” will be released Friday. He takes over the lead role from the first film’s star, Russell Crowe.
Like Crowe, Mescal performed most of his own stunts in the action flick. However, there was one stunt in particular that had the ‘Normal People’ star clashing with Scott His personal trainer Tim Blakeley told The Post.
“He loved horse riding,” he said bleakleyowner of media physicsA company that specializes in helping actors prepare their bodies for the camera.
“And he actually fought with Ridley [Scott] – He had to struggle to get a view [the movie] One with a horse where he had to jump over a moving horse.”
According to Blakeley, “Ridley wanted to take it out because he was worried that Paul would hurt himself.”
However, mescal proved undeniably persuasive.
“Paul kind of won the debate and managed to get him involved,” Blakeley recalled.
Mescal’s fight was in line with his general approach to stunts in the film – that is, he wanted to do them all.
Blakeley explained, “He would do anything if he could.” “He embraced all the physical aspects of the film.”
Mescal didn’t just excel on horseback. He also spread his magic in the arena.
Blakeley said, “Paul was very good in his fight scenes.”
And although Mescal had a stunt double, Zach Roberts — whose credits include “House of the Dragon,” “No Time to Die,” and “Black Widow” — Roberts spent most of his time stepping in for the actor instead. Spent helping him.
Blakeley said, “Jack was almost like his mentor on the set.” “He picked it up so fast.”
Mescal can be seen backstage practicing holding a sword while on horseback “Gladiator II” FeaturetteHas also told about the fight of performing the stunt of jumping from a horse.
They were given the “green light” in preparation to do something, As he told Stephen Colbert Wednesday night on “The Late Show.” But when it came time to make the film, Scott was reluctant to let the star perform stunts because of an incident that occurred in his first film, 1977’s “The Duelists.” While filming the last shot of the film, an actor suffered a broken thigh bone when his horse collided with a tree.
“We can’t do this,” Mescal remembered Scott telling him two weeks before he was ready to jump on his horse.
“But I can do this stunt at this point,” he told Colbert, “Every day for two weeks before filming the scene”, he would go to Scott and ask, “Could I possibly do the horse thing? Am?”
The answer was consistently “no”. But Mescal persisted, and the day before that fateful day, he asked the director one last time.
“He goes quiet,” Mescal remembered. “And he goes, if you get off the horse, you owe me two Bentleys.”
Like, two Bentley cars – which start at around $200,000 MSRP.
“And I was like, ‘Sure, if I got off the horse, I don’t know how much I’d pay for it.’ But I didn’t get off the horse and I didn’t have to give him two Bentleys,” the star said.
Mescal recently recreated the stunt shoot a video With Hollywood Authentic Magazine.
The Irish star said, “It’s a brief moment in the film but I think it’s the kind of thing I like.” she told the magazine In a profile. “It doesn’t matter how small a moment is; All these things add to the general feel of the film. You want to see the actors in the movie doing what they’re supposed to do.”
He added, “That was a big day for me, because a lot of work went into it. If I had brought it up it would have been a very public embarrassment. Public shame. And maybe get injured, and then the film will have to be stopped.”
But the show went on. no shame. no injuries. And no more Bentleys.
‘Gladiator II’ hits theaters Friday.
