Pedro Pascal ‘begged’ Paul Mescal to go easy on him while filming ‘Gladiator II’

Paul Mescal plays Lucius and Pedro Pascal plays Marcus Acacius in Gladiator II from Paramount Pictures.

Given that the anticipated “Gladiator II” will showcase heavy fight and swordplay scenes courtesy of its lead stars, Pedro Pascal shared that he “begged” co-star Paul Mescal to go easy on him while filming their battle scenes since the latter is “much younger.”

Ahead of its release in Philippine cinemas on Dec. 4, Pascal talked about the dynamics when he and Mescal shot one of the most epic scenes in the film where Acacius (Pascal) and Lucius (Mescal) battled each other in the Colosseum.

“Paul and I just got on right away. We were pals. We would get excited like children when we were learning our fight and rehearsing together to create what felt like a dialogue, but by using our bodies and fight choreography. It felt like an important and powerful scene, and a really frightening one. And he’s much younger than me, so a lot of our relationship consisted of begging him not to hurt me!” said Pascal in an email interview with INQUIRER.net.

“The Last of Us” actor added that it’s “exciting” for him and Mescal to fight each other inside a phenomenal, epic-scale set.

“Incredibly thrilling. Incredibly terrifying. It felt a lot like what it looks like. You have to have extraordinary trust in one another. Paul and I were so hungry to be in something together. Our characters spend so much time apart yet have such a focus on each other that it was so exciting to just go and finally, well, beat the hell out of one another,” he said.

Directed by Ridley Scott, “Gladiator II” is the long-anticipated sequel to the 2000 classic “Gladiator,” and it is set to witness Mescal play Lucius Verus, the nephew of Commodus from the original film, now grown and forced to fight as a gladiator, while Pascal stars as Marcus Acacius, a Roman general with a significant role in the empire’s military.

The film will also see the return of Connie Nielsen as Lucilla and introduce other big names including Denzel Washington and Joseph Quinn.

When asked what viewers can expect from the sequel, Pascal affirmed that “they will be entertained in the purest form possible.”