Paul Mescal Says It Was 'Fun' Getting Ripped for Gladiator II Even Though 'I Like to Drink, and I Like to Smoke'

Paul Mescal Says It Was 'Fun' Getting Ripped for Gladiator II Even Though 'I Like to Drink, and I Like to Smoke'

The actor says he “ate a lot of chicken” to get Colosseum-ready for the Nov. 22 epic

Paul Mescal Says It Was 'Fun' Getting Ripped for Gladiator II Even Though 'I Like to Drink, and I Like to Smoke'

Paul Mescal says it was “fun” getting ripped to play Lucius, the former heir to the Roman empire, in the upcoming historical epic, Gladiator II.

"I ate a lot of chicken and lifted heavy things," Mescal, 28, joked during an Oct. 25 appearance on The Graham Norton Show.

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While preparing to play the ex-royal who was forced into slavery, the Kildare, Ireland, native worked "with a trainer who circled me like a shark and said, ‘There is a canvas to work with.' "

Mescal got so muscular that his costar Pedro Pascal gave him a clever nickname. "I call him Brick Wall Paul... He got so strong. I would rather be thrown from a building than have to fight him again," Pascal, 49, told Vanity Fair in July.

Paul Mescal Says It Was 'Fun' Getting Ripped for Gladiator II Even Though 'I Like to Drink, and I Like to Smoke'

Mescal told Norton his trainer "went to town, and I saw him every day. It was fun."

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However, the Normal People star admits to having some caveats when it came to his fitness regimen. "I did everything he asked, but I like to drink, and I like to smoke, so I drew a line in the sand where those were concerned."

Mescal showed off his abs — and then some — in the trailer for the film, where he fights a rhino, among others, in the famed Roman Colosseum.

But another of Norton's guests profoundly disagreed with Mescal’s assessment of working out being “fun”: Eddie Redmayne — who recently underwent his own physical transformation, getting shredded to play an assassin in the Peacock series Day of the Jackal.

Paul Mescal Says It Was 'Fun' Getting Ripped for Gladiator II Even Though 'I Like to Drink, and I Like to Smoke'

“I profoundly disagree with Paul – it was not fun, it was horrendous,” the Fantastic Beasts alum, 42, said. "You read a scene in the script that says, ‘He is topless, sinuous and ripped,' and you think, 'Oh f---, here comes the chicken diet.' "

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Saoirse Ronan and Denzel Washington — who also stars in Gladiator II — appeared on the episode as well. Mescal admitted that he was intimidated meeting the legendary Washington, 69.

"It was a big day in my life – it was amazing," he recalled. "I spent the first day thinking, 'I must go introduce myself to him' and I stood there for several minutes before I decide, 'Not today.' The next day I decided to be a brave boy!"

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The hotly anticipated sequel to the Russell Crowe epic comes 24 years after the original 2000 Gladiator film — which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

Gladiator II opens in theaters on Nov. 22.

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