Russell Crowe’s Oscar-winning performance as Maximus Decimus Meridius in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator (2000), remains one of his best to date. But again, during the filming of this movie, Crowe felt that the movie’s script was absolutely rubbish to him. The epic drama portrays the journey of the commander of the Armies of the North, who vows vengeance on his murdered wife and son.
Russell Crowe Felt Gladiator Script’s Energy Was Fractured
In an interview, Russell Crowe, who won an Oscar for Ridley Scott‘s $503 million film, Gladiator, revealed that he first came across the David Franzoni, John Logan, and William Nicholson-written script, he found it to be “absolutely rubbish,” having strange sequences.
He famously said:
At the core of what we were doing was a great concept, but the script was rubbish, absolute rubbish. It had all these sorts of strange sequences.
One of them was about chariots and how famous gladiators — and this is all true — used certain types of chariots and how famous gladiators had endorsement deals for olive oil and things like that.
It’s all true, but it’s just not going to ring right to a modern audience, they’re going to, ‘What the f*** is all this?’
Crowe admitted that he wanted to get on the plane and get out of there as he found the energy to be very fractured. But had he taken that plane, Crowe wouldn’t have been a part of the film, that won five Oscars, and it was none other than the legendary director, Ridley Scott who gave him faith.
The Pope’s Exorcist actor also revealed that they had only 21 pages of script that he could agree upon. He explained, “A script is usually between 103-110 pages or something like that, so we had a long way to go,” The script, however, underwent “major rewrites”, a week before its production began, and what happened thereafter was nothing but legendary!
Russell Crowe Convinced Ridley Scott For An Honorable Death In Gladiator
Gladiator has so many legendary lines and quips, but one that stands above all, is Crowe’s Maximus narrating the sole purpose of his life, vengeance against Commodus, played by Joaquin Phoenix, a villain one would love to hate for his ruthless, cruel, and cartoonish ways of throwing Maximus’ life into chaos.
Crowe says at one point in the movie:
“My name is Maximus Decimus Meridius, commander of the Armies of the North, General of the Felix Legions, and loyal servant to the TRUE emperor, Marcus Aurelius.
Father to a murdered son, husband to a murdered wife. And I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next.”
But again, Crowe shared an anecdote related to his character back in time, revealing that he couldn’t align with the idea of keeping Maximus alive in the climax. He jokingly told Scott all the time, “Yeah, what does Maximus do? Does he end up running a f***king pizzeria by the Colosseum?”
Crowe and Ridley Scott both agreed on the fact that Maximus’ singular purpose was to “meet his wife in the afterlife and apologize for not being there for her.” As the two continued to work in sync, making mends at every step of the movie’s filming, Gladiator ended up becoming the second-highest-grossing film of 2000.
Gladiator (2000) can be rented or purchased on Amazon Instant Video.
Also Read: Ridley Scott Movies Fans Say Were Ahead Of Their Time
Source: Express
