Paul Mescal deliberately avoided watching ‘Gladiator’ before beginning work on the sequel. Although he saw Sir Ridley Scott’s epic when it hit cinemas in 2000, the 28-year-old actor refused to revisit the movie until work on the movie wrapped. However, once he did watch the film, Mescal admitted he felt the “pressure” of whether ‘Gladiator II’ would live up to the first flick, which saw Russell Crowe win an Academy Award for Best Actor for his performance as enslaved General Maximus Decimus Meridius. He told Empire magazine: “Over New Year’s, we watched it with a group of my best friends down …