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Paul Mescal has admitted he was so nervous about meeting Denzel Washington on the set of the film Gladiator sequel that he ended up putting it off for an entire day, when he revealed the first thing the veteran actor said to him.

The Irish actor stars opposite the legendary American star, 69, in Gladiator II, Ridley Scott’s sequel to his 2000 epic historical action film.

The film will be released in Britain on November 15 and follows Mescal’s character Lucius Verus, who is captured by the Roman army after they invade his home and is forced to fight as a gladiator. Washington plays Macrinus, a former slave who wants to use Lucius in his plot to take control of Rome.

Appears on The Graham Norton Show with his co-star, along with fellow Irish actor Saoirse Ronan and British actor Eddie Redmayne, Mescal explained how he wanted to introduce himself to Washington on their first day shooting together.

After filming for the day ended, he stood “at the bottom of the stairs” leading to the box where Washington had been sitting: “I stood there for a few minutes and thought, ‘Not today.’ So I jumped out of the way and ran to my dressing room, and I said, ‘Tomorrow you’ll be a brave boy.’

On the second day he waited again and finally met Washington, who shook his hand and apparently said, “Stop training, man.”

In the same episode, Mescal explained the grueling training regimen he was put through by his personal trainer to play the role of Lucius.

While he said he did “everything” the trainer asked him to do, including eating “a lot of chicken and lifting heavy things,” he admitted that he drew the line when it came to quitting smoking and drinking alcohol.

He also revealed that he was immediately offered the role after a 30-minute conversation with Scott: “Ridley doesn’t waste any time,” he said. “I thought there would be camera tests and auditions, but we zoomed for half an hour, talked for ten minutes about the role and then twenty minutes about Gaelic football, his dog and his wife.”

Studio executives announced last year that Mescal’s shirtless scenes in the West End production of A tram called Desire were what convinced them he would be perfect for the role.

“He was playing Stanley, and there are several moments where he takes his shirt off and it felt electric,” Paramount co-head Daria Cercek said. Variety last July. It was after watching the scenes that made “the ladies” in the audience “very vocal” that Cercek and her co-lead Michael Ireland agreed they had “found our man.”

Early critics’ responses to Gladiator II were largely positive, with several people predicting an Oscar nomination for Washington.

Gladiator II will be released in UK cinemas on November 15th and then in the US on November 22nd.