Russell Crowe admits he almost turned down Oscar-winning role in Gladiator as script was ‘so bad’

Russell Crowe is a tough actor to land for a role.

The 56-year-old Australian was a remote guest on The Tonight Show Starring Jimmy Fallon on Wednesday, and during their chat he spoke about how he almost turned down two movies in his repertoire.

The first was his new film Unhinged, which comes out next month, but surprisingly the second, was perhaps the most famous movie he’s ever done, 2000’s Gladiator, which won him Oscar gold as Best Actor.  

Crowe called making Gladiator – which was released 20 years ago last month – ‘a unique experience,’ partly because, according to the actor, ‘the [initial] script that they had was so bad.’

‘It was just so bad,’ Russell continued. ‘It was like, Okay, ummm. Yeah.’

But the producer Crowe was speaking to at the time didn’t know he had seen an early version of the script, and succeeded in convincing the Insider star to still meet with Gladiator’s acclaimed director, Ridley Scott.

‘The producer didn’t know I’d actually already been able to get a copy,’ Crowe explained to Fallon. ‘But the thing he said was, “I don’t want to send you the document we have because you won’t respond to it.”

‘He said, “But, I want to encourage you to have a meeting with Ridley Scott, and here’s the thing that I want you to think about: it’s 180 AD, you’re a roman general and you’re being directed by Ridley Scott. Just think about that.”‘  

The rest is history, as Russell shared that he and Ridley ‘clicked on that first meeting.’ 

The film, of course, went on to win Academy Awards not only for Crowe, but also for Best Picture, Best Sound, Best Visual Effects and Best Costume Design. 

One would assume that the early version of the script that initially turned Crowe off to the role was extensively revised as well, since Gladiator’s screenplay was also nominated for an Oscar that year (it lost to Almost Famous, the script of which was written by Cameron Crowe, no relation to Russell). 

And although Russell remembers working on Gladiator as ‘an extremely difficult job’ and that ‘there was definitely a little risk involved at the time,’ he acknowledges that the gamble paid off in a huge way.

‘By the time I was leaving the set, I definitely felt the collective energy of that cast,’ he reminisced. ‘It was fantastic… Everybody just lived in that world that Ridley created.’

‘Twenty years later people still talk about,’ Crowe also added. ‘That doesn’t happen with every movie.’

Up next, the A Beautiful Mind actor can be seen in Unhinged, a thriller about a man with road rage who eventually cracks.

In his chat with Fallon, he said he initially turned that project down as well, because it frightened him, but when he saw how the film’s description intrigued his friends, he changed his mind.

Unhinged will be released next month in theaters that have reopened amid eased coronavirus restrictions.