Paul Mescal Says It Was ‘Fun’ Getting Ripped for Gladiator II Even Though ‘I Like to Drink, and I Like to Smoke’

Paul Mescal says it was “fun” getting ripped to play Lucius, the former heir to the Roman empire, in the upcoming historical epic, Gladiator II.

“I ate a lot of chicken and lifted heavy things,” Mescal, 28, joked during an Oct. 25 appearance on The Graham Norton Show.

While preparing to play the ex-royal who was forced into slavery, the Kildare, Ireland, native worked “with a trainer who circled me like a shark and said, ‘There is a canvas to work with.’ ”

Mescal got so muscular that his costar Pedro Pascal gave him a clever nickname. “I call him Brick Wall Paul… He got so strong. I would rather be thrown from a building than have to fight him again,” Pascal, 49, told Vanity Fair in July.

Mescal told Norton his trainer “went to town, and I saw him every day. It was fun.”

However, the Normal People star admits to having some caveats when it came to his fitness regimen. “I did everything he asked, but I like to drink, and I like to smoke, so I drew a line in the sand where those were concerned.”

Mescal showed off his abs — and then some — in the trailer for the film, where he fights a rhino, among others, in the famed Roman Colosseum.

But another of Norton’s guests profoundly disagreed with Mescal’s assessment of working out being “fun”: Eddie Redmayne — who recently underwent his own physical transformation, getting shredded to play an assassin in the Peacock series Day of the Jackal.

“I profoundly disagree with Paul – it was not fun, it was horrendous,” the Fantastic Beasts alum, 42, said. “You read a scene in the script that says, ‘He is topless, sinuous and ripped,’ and you think, ‘Oh f—, here comes the chicken diet.’ ”

Never miss a story — sign up for PEOPLE’s free daily newsletter to stay up-to-date on the best of what PEOPLE has to offer, from celebrity news to compelling human interest stories.

Saoirse Ronan and Denzel Washington — who also stars in Gladiator II — appeared on the episode as well. Mescal admitted that he was intimidated meeting the legendary Washington, 69.

“It was a big day in my life – it was amazing,” he recalled. “I spent the first day thinking, ‘I must go introduce myself to him’ and I stood there for several minutes before I decide, ‘Not today.’ The next day I decided to be a brave boy!”

The hotly anticipated sequel to the Russell Crowe epic comes 24 years after the original 2000 Gladiator film — which won Best Picture at the Academy Awards.

Gladiator II opens in theaters on Nov. 22.