Russell Crowe recently spoke to Australia’s Triple J and shared his disappointment with “Gladiator 2,” Ridley Scott’s 2024 sequel to the Oscar-winning “Gladiator.” Crowe headlined the original movie but was not a fan of the follow-up.
“I think the recent sequel that, you know, we don’t have to name out loud is a really unfortunate example of even the people in that engine room not actually understanding what made the first one special,” Crowe said. “It wasn’t the pomp. It wasn’t the circumstance. It wasn’t the action. It was the moral core.”
Crowe, who won the Oscar for best actor thanks to his performance as Maximus in “Gladiator,” said he was always committed to preserving his character’s moral core during the making of the original movie. His steadfastness led to creative clashes against those who wanted to rough Maximus up around the edges by giving him sex scenes.
“The thing is, there was a daily fight on that set. It was a daily fight to keep that moral core of the character,” Crowe said. “The amount of times they suggested sex scenes and stuff like that for Maximus, it’s like you’re taking away his power. So you’re saying at the same time he had this relationship with his wife, he was fucking this other girl? What are you talking about? It’s crazy.”
Much of “Gladiator’s” plot is set in motion by the murder of Maximus’ wife and child, which sets him out on a path of revenge. As a result, it didn’t make sense to Crowe that Maximus would have affairs or sex with other women because his love for his wife was so resolute and driving his mission forward. “Gladiator 2,” however, reveals that Maximus did have a past affair with Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) that resulted in a child, Lucius (played by Paul Mescal). Crowe appears to suggest the sequel hurt Maximus’ moral code, which was so crucial to the original “Gladiator.”
In the lead up to the November 2024 release of “Gladiator 2,” Crowe repeatedly stated that neither Ridley Scott nor anyone involved with the sequel reached out to him to consult on the film (if they had, he might’ve protested against making Lucius the son of Maximus). Crowe also never expected Mescal to contact him either, given Maximus’ death at the end of the original “Gladiator.” At the Karlovy Film Festival, Crowe even urged the press to stop asking him about the “Gladiator” sequel.
“They should be fucking paying me for the amount of questions I am asked about a film I am not even in,” Crowe said. “It has nothing to do with me. In that world, I am dead. Six feet under. But I do admit to a certain tinge of jealousy, because it reminds me of when I was younger and what it meant for me, in my life.”
Watch Crowe’s interview with Triple J in the video below.
