10 Movie Roles Originally Intended For Other Actors

Everyone knows who Russel Crowe is these days, but think back to 1999 and before... Can you recall a single performance before 2000's Gladiator? Probably not, but that's not to say he wasn't an established actor... just not one in Hollywood.

He starred in a number of films and television programs in his native New Zealand and Australia, but it wasn't until he played Roman General Maximus Decimus Meridius in Ridley Scott's Gladiator before he became an international star. As it happens, he wasn't the director's first choice for the film, but it was another bloke from Australia.

Mel Gibson was the first name to come to mind when the studio began casting Ridley Scott's Roman gladiatorial epic. While it would have been an impressive influx of Gibson's star power to help make the movie successful, it turned out, he wasn't needed. The relatively unknown Crowe killed the performance and made it one of his most iconic performances to date.

Gibson felt he was too old to play the role. He was 44 at the time, while Crowe was 36. Despite that small age difference, he felt he couldn't handle the role as well as the younger actor could. Interestingly, he did The Patriot in the same year, and that role was intensely physical, so there's little doubt he could have handled Gladiator at the time.