Paul Mescale is probably a little too good at his job.
According to his personal trainer Tim Blakeley, the 28-year-old actor toned his body so well for “Gladiator II” that the filmmakers forced him to go shirtless for as many scenes as possible.
In an interview with The Post, Blakely also revealed the secret weapon she deployed to help the Irish star get an instant pump on set: Coca-Cola.
Meskel’s show-stopping personality was hard won. The actor had just 12 weeks left to get into fighting shape when director Ridley Scott gave him the good news that he would be playing the film’s hero, Lucious. With a full schedule performing in Tennessee Williams’ “A Streetcar Named Desire” in London’s West End, time was tight.
A blockbuster on the line, Mescal needed the perfect personal trainer to prepare him to take on the swings and arrows of the Roman Colosseum.
enter BlakelyRoyal Navy veteran, experienced bodybuilder, personal trainer and owner Physical mediaa company that specializes in helping actors develop their body cameras.
The fitness pro has worked with – and worked with – Hollywood bodies including John Boyega, Luke Evans, Thandie Newton and Taron Egerton.
From the beginning, Mescal’s training focused on adding “size and strength.”
“We had to get some muscle tissue on him early,” Blakely told The Post.
The actor worked out five to six days a week, focusing on a different body part in each session. But Meskel didn’t have to spend hours pumping iron every day. In fact, he only needed 45 minutes to an hour in any given session. As Blakely explained, more time was wasted.
“Once you put the body under stress and load, and you’ve achieved a training response, then any sets or reps after that, you’re just burning calories,” he explained. “You can do body parts in less than an hour.”
He continued, “Everything we did in the gym was to be really efficient and effective. You know, we didn’t have time to do lunging stuff.
Mescal went into the training process with experience as a player, who had played Gaelic football at a fairly high level, and had the mindset necessary to get results.
“With Paul, there are no wasted sets. With Paul we’ll literally do a few warm-up sets, then we do a feeder set just to check his form, two working sets fail or fail. close and then we move on to the next workout,” Blakeley said.
“Paul is one of the hardest-working actors in the business,” the fitness pro added, describing Mescale’s attitude as “put your head down and work.”
“He never complained. He was just a complete workhorse. He never missed a session and whenever he was in the gym, it wasn’t a phone or anything like that. The phone was in the locker.” The trainer recalled.
Meskel sometimes pushed back on what his training would consist of – though not with much success. “He wanted to know what we were doing, I would tell him what we were doing, and we could have a little conversation about it, but in the end, I always won,” Blakeley said. .
After three months of intense training, consuming 300 grams of protein per day (with the occasional gin and tonic), Mescale was ready to enter the arena.
But there was only one problem when the star came on set. He saw too good
“Because he looked so good, a lot of his scenes, they were like, ‘Right, shirt off,'” Blackley recalled.
This presented a challenge, because while most actors only have to prepare for one or two shirtless scenes to look simultaneously ripped and jacked, Mescale’s body looks picture-perfect every day. Had to come.
“A lot of actors get revelations in movies, like when they have a shower scene where you can go, ‘Okay. This is the day we get behind.’ Because we know it’s coming,” Blakely explained.
“And you know, we can cut back on a little bit of water; we can carb-load the day before the scene,” she continued, citing a few tactics trainers use to get their clients photo-ready. are in favor of doing
“But because he had his shirt off so much, you have to keep your body as tight as possible all the time,” Blakeley said.
The physicality of Meskel’s character – in fact there are few fight scenes in the film – the actors filming in Malta and Morocco faced intense heat which meant that hacks such as water cutting were out of the question.
“He couldn’t do the traditional planning because it was most of the day. [that he was shirtless]”
But Blakely had a sweet trick up her sleeve to help Paul pump up.
“Because he likes Coke, if we had a scene that was controllable, I’d give him Coke just to get some glycogen in the muscles so you can get a little pump,” the strength coach explained. of
Although Blakely was responsible for helping Meskel sculpt his body, Meskel created the vision of what that body should look like.
According to Blackley, the actor decided to abandon the “Marvel route”, preferring athleticism and authenticity over Meskel’s claims. “Underwear Model Body.”
“He wanted to feel worthy, that’s the word he used,” Trainor recalled.
And Meskel got no pushback from the production. Ridley Scott relied on Mescale’s vision for his character’s physique.
“Once I met Paul, he has such a great relationship with Ridley — he really trusted him,” Blakely shared. “I think so [Ridley] Really happy for Paul to guide the way his character should look.
“And obviously, Russell Crowe didn’t have a Marvel-type body,” the fitness pro said, referring to the first “Gladiator” movie.
“I felt there was really no pressure on him in terms of production,” he continued.
The filmmakers had one note, one Blakely, Mescale and everyone else agreed on: He had to be big and strong.
“Paul had the basics down but he was on board, he wanted to get bigger and stronger,” Blakeley said.
“His character is a very skilled and capable fighter. So with him you needed strength, agility and speed. And he had agility and speed. He just needed size and strength.
“Gladiator II” hits theaters on Friday, Nov. 22.
Credit : nypost.com
