20 Things You Didn’t Know About Gladiator

However, at first Crowe had no interest in the role. He was knee-deep in working with Michael Mann on the role of Jeffrey Wigand in The Insider, a part which had required him to age up nearly twenty years. He’d put on fifty pounds: more than that, playing Wigand was a heavily internalised performance, Crowe’s trademark intensity bottled up and focused in a completely different way.

It was Mann himself who persuaded him to take another look at Gladiator. The script itself didn’t do it - Scott didn’t have a draft he was happy with, so it was literally just the experience of working with the director of Alien and Blade Runner that sealed the deal.

"They said, “It's a $100 million film. You're being directed by Ridley Scott. You play a Roman general.” I've always been a big fan of Ridley's."

However, that script issue caused all kinds of problems for Crowe on set - and when Crowe has problems on set, so do everyone else. He had plenty of confrontations with Scott that resulted in him simply walking off set.

Fortunately, the two were on the same page as often as not - for example, both Scott and Crowe flatly refused to entertain studio suggestions that Maximus and Lucilla should have a sexual relationship, because it wrecked the bereavement thread the character was following, that open wound in Maximus’ soul.

The experience, as emotionally and physically gruelling as it was, ended up being incredibly rewarding for all concerned. Maximus is still one of Crowe’s favourite roles, two decades later.