Russell Crowe cemented his status as a Hollywood icon thanks to the film Gladiator; it was a box office hit that earned the actor an Oscar after all.
But Russell has revealed that he originally thought the script was “rubbish” and seriously considered quitting.
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Speaking to Vanity Fair, the 59-year-old said that the first Gladiator script gave him reservations about taking on the leading role of Maximus.
“Gladiator is my 20-somethingth movie, so 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,” Russell said.
“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.”
Russell explained that these sequences involved different types of chariots and how “some famous gladiators had endorsement deals” for products like olive oil. He then admitted that he did not think these scenes would be received well by a “modern audience.”
“They’re gonna go, ‘What the f**k is all this?’ The energy around what we were doing was very fractured,” Russell said.
The only reason Russell decided to stay and film Gladiator was because he had “faith” in director Ridley Scott.
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“He [Ridley] said to me at one point in time, ‘Mate, we’re not committing anything to camera that you don’t believe in 100 per cent.”
Russell then disclosed that he and Ridley agreed to keep and film just “21 pages” of the original 110 page Gladiator script.
