‘Gladiator II’ creator gets candid about almost casting Timothée Chalamet

Gladiator II director Ridley Scott has recently made shocking revelation about casting Timothée Chalamet for Lucius part, a role which went to Paul Mescal.

Speaking to The Hollywood Reporter, the movie’s producer Doug Wick said, “Any studio would always prefer to have a known star.”

“Having only starred in indie features like Aftersun and All of Us Strangers and despite awards consideration for both, Paul was not a known entity at the box office in the way Timothée was,” explained the producer.

IndieWire reported that Paramount co-presidents of Gladiator II Daria Cercek and Michael Ireland saw Paul as Stanley Kowalski in a West End revival of A Streetcar Named Desire.

Doug shared they both agreed “no other actor came close”.

Ridley also spoke to IndieWire and explained how he was inspired by Paul’s performance in Normal People movie.

“I need bedtime stories. Before I go to bed, I always watch something. I caught ‘Normal People’ almost by accident,” disclosed the director.

Ridley pointed out, “It was not my kind of thing really, but I watched two and thought that both the guy and the girl were terrific. Then I binged eight hours.”

Interestingly, the movie-maker said that he was positive to cast Paul for Gladiator II.

Meanwhile, Paul previously told THR, “A movie like ‘Gladiator II‘ is the dream in terms of studio, big-scale movie-making because it’s in the hands of Ridley and rooted in human condition with a very clear emotional language.”