Paul Mescal has no patience for comparing filmmaking to content creation. The “Gladiator II” star told The Sunday Times that he finds the label of films as “content” to be a “filthy” practice, akin to putting influencers side by side with auteurs.

Don’t let Paul Mescal’s blockbuster legacyquel ascendancy fool you. He’s still an actor with principles about making art. “Over the last few years people have been talking about films as content,” he says in a new interview with The Times. “That’s a filthy word. It’s not ‘content,’ it’s fucking work.”

Actor Paul Mescal, Oscar-nominated star of “Aftersun” and the forthcoming “Gladiator II,” is an artist. He takes his work seriously, and he doesn’t like it being described using the word that reduces it to a soulless economic widget: ...

Speaking with The Times, Paul Mescal talked about the film industry and his career. Specifically, he talked about how some people discuss feature films as being “content.” We’ve seen this quite a bit when it comes to creating films or TV series for streaming services. Mescal takes issue with people calling films “content.”