20 Things You Didn’t Know About Gladiator

A little known fact is that Jennifer ‘J-Lo’ Lopez auditioned for the role of Lucilla, Commodus’ sister.

It was, of course, Danish actress, singer and model Connie Nielsen who was cast, and thank goodness for that, because her contribution extended beyond her remarkable performance in the role of a woman driven to extraordinary measures to protect her son and herself from the incestuous advances of a mad Emperor.

You see, Nielsen - who speaks eight languages - is an amateur historian specialising in ancient Rome, whose surprisingly in-depth knowledge of the period ended up being a godsend for the production. She was consulted on many occasions over historical accuracy in details here and there, and proved an invaluable resource on location.

How things would have been different if Scott had chosen Jenny From The Block over the polyglottal expert in antiquity. I suppose if he had, it would have twerked out okay in the end.

Supposedly, Nielsen found the signet ring she wears in the movie in an antique store: even more supposedly, it was the genuine article, two thousand years old, which is the kind of trivia tidbit that sounds just too unlikely to be true, and so probably actually is true.