Adam B. Vary Senior Entertainment Writer Ridley Scott may not have been present for the first major screening of “Gladiator II” on Friday night on the Paramount lot in Los Angeles, but the 86-year-old director was the favorite topic of conversation for stars Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen and Fred Hechinger in the post-screening Q&A.

Mescal — who plays Lucius Virus, the grown son of Russell Crowe’s character from the first “Gladiator,” released in 2000 — spoke in awe about Scott’s ability to shoot the film’s elaborate opening battle sequence, which involved Pedro Pascal’s Roman general leading a fleet of ships invading a city on the North African coast. “I think we shot that over nine days,” the actor said. “I don’t know any other director who could do that.” Mescal was, understandably, nervous before the first shot. “I was smoking a cigarette, and we were kind of marching around the place, and Ridley comes in with a cigar, just sitting there,” he said. “I was absolutely shitting myself, and he looks at me [and] goes, ‘You nervous?’ Mescal paused, not knowing the appropriate answer. “He’s like, ‘Your nerves are no fucking good to me,’” Scott told, then called to roll cameras.

When moderator Jacqueline Coley asked Washington what it was about the film that convinced him to sign on to make it, he had a simple answer. “It’s Ridley,” he said. “It’s ‘Gladiator.’ It’s: ‘Yes.’” Washington, who first worked with Scott on 2007’s “American Gladiator,” also marveled at the filmmaker’s efforts to recreate the splendor and decadence of late-era Rome. “He built Rome, so all we had to do was put the clothes on and start talking,” Washington said. “It was play.

‘Gladiator II’ Stars Paul Mescal, Denzel Washington, Connie Nielsen Heap Praise on Director Ridley Scott: ‘He Built Rome’

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