RUSHES: Film: 'Gladiator II' premiere: Cast interviews

Film: 'Gladiator II' premiere: Cast interviews; ENGLAND: London: Leicester Square: EXT / NIGHT GVs of Paul Mescal ('Lucius') and Ridley Scott (Director) on red carpet / GVs of Mescal greeting Denzel Washington ('Macrinus') Ridley Scott (Director) interview SOT - (On why he chose Paul Mescal as lead actor) I tend to watch bedtime stories and I watch usually low budget incoming, they're fresh and new, as opposed to us who are outgoing, believe it or not I'm outgoing / so I saw Normal People and I binged and I suddenly saw a little bit of 'there he was, there's my star' / it's that simple, it's what I do for a living / when you see eight hours of Normal People, every colour in his palette is there and I know there's a lot more in there, so that was the decision, he's a great actor - (On why he decided to do a sequel) I've done fourteen other films in the meantime dear, I'm not sitting there agonising over Gladiator II / Glad I would not go away, it actually kept going with the platforms globally it played somewhere every night globally for 25 years, so I thought we better have a sequel - (On creating spectacle in his films) I know (laughs), here / art school, West Hartlepool College of Art.