By Filmmaker Ridley Scott previously teased that actor Joaquin Phoenix got cold feet on the set of “Napoleon” and so he worked with the actor closely to make sure he got over his nerves.
Now, in a new interview with The New York Times, Scott revealed Phoenix had a similar situation with his breakthrough role as the villain Commodus in Scott’s 2000 film “Gladiator”.
The interviewer asked Scott to confirm a story he heard that Phoenix had to be convinced to stay on the Oscar-winning project. Scott says:
“He was in his prince’s outfit saying, ‘I can’t do it.’ I said, ‘What?’ and Russell [Crowe] said, ‘This is terribly unprofessional.’”
Asked how he persuaded the actor to remain with the production, Scott said:
“I can act as a big brother or dad. But I’m quite a friend of Joaquin’s. Gladiator was a baptism of fire for both of us in the beginning.”
The “Gladiator” sequel did lose a villain actor though with actor Barry Keoghan dropping out due to a scheduling conflict with Andrea Arnold’s “Bird”. Fred Hechinger replaced him as Emperor Caracalla.
Separately Scott tells THR that his first cut of “Gladiator 2” was about 3hrs 40mins and the final film ended up being about 2hr 20mins sans credits.
He denied a director’s cut version the other day and here says “I’d rather get into Gladiator III. There’s already an idea. I’ve always had this idea based on The Godfather Part II.”
“Gladiator II” begins its international rollout next week and hits U.S. cinemas on November 22nd.
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