‘Gladiator II’ Actor Says Hollywood Is ‘Moving Away’ From ‘Alpha’ Male Roles

“Gladiator II” actor Paul Mescal said Hollywood is changing its approach to leading males. 

The 29-year-old Irish star made the remarks while promoting his new gay romantic drama, “History of Sound,” which premiered at the Cannes Film Festival. 

“It’s ever shifting,” he said during a press conference for the film, per Variety. “I think maybe in cinema we’re moving away from the traditional, alpha, leading male characters. I don’t think the film is defining or attempting to redefine masculinity, I think it is being very subjective to the relationship between [the movie’s characters] Lionel and David.”

This was similar to comments he made last year about the state of masculinity in modern society.

“There’s a sort of crisis in masculinity I think at the moment and what it means to be a man,” Mescal told Sky News at the time. “We have all these things within us, there’s no one way of being, there just isn’t, and sometimes the people who are the most outwardly macho in some ways, are the people who aren’t going to be there for you emotionally.”

Mescal also bristled at the comparisons being made between “History of Sound” and the popular gay romance “Brokeback Mountain” (2005), which starred Heath Ledger and Jake Gyllenhaal. 

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“I personally don’t see the parallels at all with ‘Brokeback Mountain,’ other than we spent a little time in a tent,” he said. “[‘Brokeback’] is a beautiful film but it is dealing with the idea of repression … I find those comparisons relatively lazy and frustrating, but for the most part I think the relationship I have to the film is born out of the fact that it’s a celebration between these men’s love and not the repression of their sexuality.”

Per the movie’s description, “History of Sound” is about “two young men — Lionel (Paul Mescal) and David (Josh O’Connor) — in the shadows of WWI who are determined to record the lives, voices and music of their American countrymen. As they begin to log the events, the two fall in love.”

Previously, Mescal defended himself against being cast as a gay man in films despite being heterosexual in real life. 

“It depends [on] who’s in charge of telling the story,” the actor told The Sunday Times while discussing another project, “All of Us Strangers.”

“The issue is that there have been so many queer performances in cinema that have been offensive, but that’s because the filmmakers and the actors have been careless,” he added.