For the past two summers, TikToks of Paul Mescal’s training regimen for Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II have gone viral. Mescal, an Irish actor known for his breakout role in Hulu’s adaptation of the Sally Rooney novel Normal People, looks ripped. In one of the videos, which has over 2 million views, Mescal does continuous upright rows with dumbbells for over 20 seconds. I can’t discern the weight he’s holding, but I can see from his strained face and measured breathing that it isn’t light.
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I have to be honest, though, when the internet started salivating over Mescal’s physique, I wondered, is that—at all—what gladiators looked like? What do we actually know about gladiators’ diet, exercise, and appearance? Frankly, it all seems ripe for some real Hollywood inaccuracy.
To answer my questions, I talked to Alexander Mariotti, a.k.a “The Gladiator Historian.” Mariotti, who has been a historical consultant on numerous films and television…
