When you think of Paul Mescal, you think of one thing.
GAA shorts!
Yes, the Maynooth man has become synonymous with the iconic athletic shorts. But it’s not just the aesthetic he likes.
He used to play county for Kildare so his dream came true when he got to play on Croke Park when he returned to Ireland for the Gladiator II premiere.
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In the clip, Paul can be seen walking through the halls of the iconic stadium.
When he’s told he’s going on the pitch, he immediately lights up and asks: “Are we actually? Shut up!”
We knew that Paul had serious skills when it came to football but he also got to show off his hurling skills as he picked about a sliotar on the iconic pitch.
Seriously a dream come true for Paul!
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Speaking to Vanity Fair, Paul previously discussed getting the role in Gladiator II admitting that his background on the sports pitch has really helped him. Oh and of course, his “Roman nose” didn’t hurt either.
“My nose just is kind of Roman,” he admitted.
“So it’s useful in this context. The nose that I absolutely hated when I was in secondary school—and used to get ribbed for—became very, very useful when Ridley needed somebody to be in Gladiator II.”
He explained that had a conversation with the director Ridley Scott for “about 20 to 30 minutes”.
“I wanted to get a flavour from him about what the story was going to be about, so we spent about 15 minutes talking about that, and 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.”
Clearly Paul made an impression on Ridley as he didn’t even need to do a camera test before he was offered the role.
“My memory of it is that probably two or three weeks later, the offer came in,” Paul admitted.
