Can you imagine the iconic drama “Gladiator” without Russell Crowe?
It was in the realm of possibility, according to Crowe himself, who admitted he almost left the project for a multitude of reasons.
“‘Gladiator’s’ my 20-something movie. I was confident about my abilities as a leading man. What I wasn’t confident about with ‘Gladiator’ was the world that was surrounding me,” he told Vanity Fair.
“At the core of what we were doing was a great concept, but the script, it was rubbish. Absolute rubbish. And it had all these sort of strange sequences, you know. One of them, was about chariots,” he shared. While all the storylines were factual, Crowe worried that nothing would resonate with viewers. “It’s just not gonna ring right to a modern audience. They’re gonna go, ‘What the f— is all this?’”
Russel Crowe played Maximus in the 1999 film “Gladiator.” (Universal)
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“The energy around what we were doing was very fractured,” he said of the film set.
“I did think a couple of times, ‘Maybe my best option is just to get on a plane and get out of here.'” Conversations Crowe had with the film’s director, Ridley Scott, contributed to the actor’s decision to stay.
Crowe recalled Scott telling him, “Mate, we’re not committing anything to camera that you don’t believe in 100%.”
“When we actually started that film, we had 21 pages of script that we agreed on,” Crowe shared. “So we had a long way to go, and you know we basically used up those pages in the first section of the movie, so by the time we got to our second location, which was Morocco, we were sort of catching up.”
Russell Crowe shared that he believed the original script for “Gladiator” was “absolute rubbish.” (Universal)
Although Crowe was in his mid-30s and relatively established at the time of filming, he resonated with co-star Joaquin Phoenix, who was just 26.
“Joaquin was going through the same thing that I was,” Crowe recalled. “When you walk onto a set that big, it’s very easy for imposter-syndrome to come over you. It’s like ‘What am I gonna do with this?’ And we’d go to his costume appointments and they’d put him in this armor and all this finery, you know. I remember one day he said to Ridley, ‘Ridley, I don’t understand. You know, I’m a kid from Florida, what am I supposed to do in this? Go out and wave to people?’ And Ridley’s like ‘Yeah. That’s what you’re supposed to do.'”
Joaquin Phoenix played Commodus in “Gladiator.” He was in his mid-20s when they filmed the movie. (Universal)
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Phoenix is now a critically acclaimed actor, but at the time, Crowe says only Scott knew of his talent.
“We all know this now. We know how fine an actor he is now. But back then, it was only Ridley Scott who knew how fine an actor he was. He was the one convincing Joaquin to do this, and to do it the way he did it, you know. The subtleties and the menace, and all of these things he brought to that role,” he shared of his co-star.
“When I first saw it, I was blown away by it. When I first saw it with a crowd, that’s when it really freaked me out because it was like going to a movie when I was a kid. People were so connected to the film, and they were voicing that connection.”
Russell Crowe praised Joaquin Phoenix for his acting skills in the film. (Lucy Nicholson/AFP)
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Crowe admitted that despite all the success he has received from the film, he is actually somewhat embarrassed by it.
“It’s an incredible ensemble cast, with beautiful performances from end to end, not only Joaquin, but Connie Nielson, Richard Harris, Derek Jacobi, Tomas Arana, Djimon Hounsou, I mean come on, man. It’s just beautiful stuff,” he said.
“I wish that every young actor could have a something like a ‘Gladiator’ in their career. We made that film in 1999, and I’ll bet you money somewhere in the world tonight, that film is playing on primetime television. It has the longest legs and people, you know they’re not just connected to it, but they love it with a passion.”
