Paul Mescal discusses his anxiety before the start of filming when he met Pedro Pascal, who would play him in the highly awaited Gladiator sequel, and why he is “stressed” about the project.

Before the SAG-AFTRA strike, the actor said in a recent interview with Esquire that he actually saw The Last of Us star at LAX airport right before his role in the film was revealed but “was too afraid to go up to him.”

He said Pascal ended up coming over to him and “just seemed so genuine; I’m really looking forward to hanging out with him.”

In the film, Mescal plays the adult version of Lucius, who in the original was shown as the infant nephew of Commodus, the Roman Emperor who was portrayed by Joaquin Phoenix in the 2000 movie. 

The Hollywood Reporter earlier quoted the actor as saying that he met with infamous filmmaker Ridley Scott and “discussed the parameters of the story,” rather than having to go through an audition process. Then I received a script after the fact.

However, because of the continuing simultaneous strikes, manufacturing is temporarily halted. However, Scott’s sequel, which he started filming in June, did get approximately halfway through before they had to stop.

Mescal was wary of saying anything he shouldn’t have because he didn’t want to spill too many secrets about the Gladiator sequel to Esquire.

“I can’t get into that!” he told the outlet. “I can’t tell you how stressed I am talking about that film in particular, because it’s definitely the biggest one I’ve done. I feel really excited, but, like, it’s difficult to get away from the legacy of the film a bit. 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.”

The actor also revealed that he hadn’t communicated to the original Gladiator star Russell Crowe. “I don’t know what we would talk about,” he explained. “Like, I’d love to hear his stories from filming, but the character is, like, totally separate.”