Gladiator star Russell Crowe has hit out at the film’s executives for their lack of research over the original script.
Crowe starred in the original epic directed by Ridley Scott as Maximus Decimus Meridius, which saw him win an Oscar for best actor in 2000.
Ridley Scott is to return to direct the upcoming sequel, starring Paul Mescal.
The first photos of Paul Mescal in the Gladiator sequel were released this week. Check them out here.
“edit the s*** script”
In a interview, Russell Crowe who recently performed in Dublin with his band Russell Crowe’s Indoor Garden Party, revealed that some of the executives from the original Gladiator did not even know who emperor Marcus Aurelius was, adding that he had to edit the “s*** script” with Scott.
“You’re reading it and going, oh, f*** off”, Crowe said. “My agent was like, ‘well, come on, convince yourself there’s something positive about it, because (Ridley) wants to meet you’”.
“It really wasn’t a script. It was just an idea. But not even a good idea”.
(Crowe has been on tour with his band recently) Source: Shutterstock
When the executives were unable to explain who Marcus Aureiius was, Crowe went to a local book shop and bought six copies of Meditations, telling the executives to “f****** read this”.
“You might be picking up, I’m rather blunt. And when I’m confronted with stupidity like that, I don’t deal with it very well”, Crowe stated. “You’re f****** telling me you’re going to spend 100 million dollars on a subject you don’t know anything about?”.
Crowe Hails “artistic brain” Ridley Scott
Elsewhere, Russell Crowe hailed Ridley Scott for being “monumental as an artistic brain”, and said that he had a “great relationship” with him.
On meeting Scott for the first time, Crowe said: “At a certain point, everybody else left the room, and I said, the script’s s***”.
Crowe also added that he was told by Scott that he felt the film could be improved due to the $100 million in resources they had received.
“(But it) was one of my first experiences of the expectation of the studio and having studio people involved in the process of developing what you’re doing. And they were f****** not very smart”, the actor explained.
Crowe also revealed that he would often meet Scott after hours to work on this script. Sometimes, the pair would be there until 4am in the morning.
He said, “We really enjoyed each other’s company, and that ideas are bouncing around, we really started to give it some morality, and some fibre, and some strength”.
As mentioned, Scott is also set to direct the Gladiator sequel, starring Paul Mescal as Lucius. The Normal People star also received Crowe’s blessing for this role.
Wishing Mescal the very best of luck with this role, Crowe hailed the Kildare native as a “good dude”. Find out more here.
