Paul Mescal will get ‘profoundly depressed’ if ‘Gladiator 2’ makes him more famous

Paul Mescal may be a Hollywood A-lister with a feverish fanbase, but the actor is not ready for the uber fame that will surely come his way now that he is starring in “Gladiator 2.”

The Oscar-nominated actor rose to fame with roles in “Normal People,” “Aftersun,” “All of Us Strangers” and “Foe,” but his star will indeed explode when the Ridley Scott-directed sequel, co-starring heavy hitters Pedro Pascal and Denzel Washington, hits theaters Nov. 22.

In an interview with the Times UK, the 27-year-old Irish actor said he is quite scared of the possible impending global attention headed his way.

“I don’t know what the difference will be,” Mescal explained. “Maybe that’s naive? Is it just that more people will stop you in the street? I’d get profoundly depressed if that’s so and hope it isn’t true. I’ll have an answer next year, but if [the film] impacts my life in that way, I’ll be in a bad spot. I’d have to move on and do an obtuse play nobody wants to see.”

Mescal, who was born in Maynooth, outside Dublin, spent his teenage years as a jock but fell in love with acting while studying the craft at Trinity College Dublin. Still, he admits he sometimes misses football although he takes acting “very seriously.”

“There are times when acting can get catty, which I hate,” he said. Surely there is also cattiness in sport? “No. Your team is your team. But at drama school they’ll stab you in the back to get parts. It’s brutal.”

Mescal also has concerns about the brutal way social media can often play a role in Hollywood casting.

“What are we doing this for?” Mescal asked. “It scares me greatly. Acting should never be reduced to numbers of Instagram followers.”

He added, “Over the last few years, people have been talking about films and TV shows as content. That’s a filthy word. It’s not ‘content’, it’s f–king work. I’m not being snobby, but there are two concurrent industries. One that works with a lack of care and artistic integrity. Go nuts, make stuff with Instagram followers as a factor, whatever … But the other is what’s always been there, the craft of filmmaking, directing, lighting and production design. That keeps artists alive. And audiences want to be challenged.”

Mescal hopes that “Gladiator 2” will do just that.

“I feel really excited, but, like, it’s difficult to get away from the legacy of the film a bit,” he explained to Esquire in an August 2023 interview. “I think it’s really well written and it pays homage to the first one, but it’s very much something that I think I can step into and make comfortably my own.”