Paul Mescal says playing Gaelic football helped prepare him for "Gladiator II" role

"Gladiator II" is one of the year's most hotly-anticipated films and we've now finally got a handful of first look pictures from the production showing Paul Mescal in all his warrior glory. The Irish actor is playing Lucius Verus, the son of Lucilla, in the "Gladiator" sequel which is due out later this year and has now said that he thinks his Gaelic football background helped him in the role. Chatting with Variety about how he got the part, Paul and director Ridley Scott said they spoke over Zoom after Ridley was impressed with Paul's performance in Normal People.

"We spoke for about 20 to 30 minutes. I wanted to get a flavor from him about what the story was going to be about, so we spent about 15 minutes talking about that," Paul recalled. He continued: "Then we spent another 10 minutes talking about the sport that I played growing up—Gaelic football.

Maybe that was something that helped with it, in that I’m used to being physical in my body." Sign up to IrishCentral's newsletter to stay up-to-date with everything Irish! Ridley was full of praise for Paul, admitting that although Normal People is "not really my kind of TV show" he was struck by Paul and left thinking "Who’s this guy?" He added that Paul was "a special find" and "absolutely perfect" for the " Gladiator II" role. First Look: Paul Mescal is Lucius in 'Gladiator II.

' See more images from Ridley Scott's upcoming film: https://t.co/WWYVKnybYX pic.twitter.

com/Y1WFNN0rWJ In the upcoming movie, Paul's charact.