Russell Crowe Nearly Quit ’Gladiator’ Over Initial Script, Actor Reveals

In an interview with Vanity Fair, Russen Crowe said he had considered leaving Ridley Scott’s project because the script included scenes where gladiators rode chariots with olive oil barrels and other products. "All of that is beautiful, but the modern audience wouldn’t relate to it," he said. And he added: "The energy was very scattered. I thought several times that the best solution might be to take a plane and leave here. It was the discussions I had with Ridley that gave me faith."

The Australian actor recounts that Ridley assured him that there would be no filming if he "didn’t believe in it 100%." "When we started this movie, we had 21 pages of script that we agreed on. A script usually has 103, 104 or 110 pages. So we still had a long way to go. Then, when we arrived at our second filming location, Morocco, we caught up," Russen Crowe specifies.

Ridley Scott is currently preparing the sequel to the film (Gladiator 2) which should be released in November 2024. Russen Crowe has not been contacted for the filming of this second part of the film. "The only thing I really feel about it is a bit of jealousy. Because I was much younger, obviously, and it was a great experience for me. It’s something that really changed my life. It changed the way people saw me and I was lucky to have been involved in a lot of great movies," he said.