Russell Crowe Looks Worlds Away From His Gladiator Days Now 20 Years Later

Oct 17, 2020

People are talking about how different actor Russell Crowe, 56, looks today as compared to when he played Maximus in Gladiator 20 years ago after he was spotted at a tennis match in Sydney earlier this month.

You wouldn't think at first glance that this was the same guy who played Maximus Decimus Meridius in the epic historical film Gladiator 20 years ago. Earlier this month, Hollywood legend Russell Crowe was seen scruffy-bearded and wearing a ponytail at a tennis match in Sydney, Australia with his close friend and Broken City co-star Britney Theriot, Daily Mail reported.

Media outlets have speculated that the actor had to gain weight to play the role of a psychotic stalker in the thriller Unhinged, and before that, he had to not just gain a significant amount of weight but also don a fat suit to assume his role as the late chairman and CEO of Fox News, Roger Ailes, in The Loudest Voice.

Crowe relived his days as a Roman general in an interview with GQ recently, sharing what it was like working with director Ridley Scott and what really happened behind the scenes.

The Oscar winner had this to say:

"After I finished The Insider, Ridley and Michael had a conversation. I went to meet Ridley. I looked like absolute sh*t. I don't see how he could possibly have seen me as a Roman general but we really got on. He had gigantic ideas and I kinda thought most of them were impossible really, and it certainly wasn't on the page. There was no script that we could be enthused about. But what I was most enthused about was the simple idea: It's 184 A.D. You're a Roman general and you're being directed by Ridley Scott, you know? So that drove my motivation a lot.

"It was very difficult putting on those clothes and going 'oh yeah, off we go, I'm a Roman general'," he continued.

"And I know that Joaquin Phoenix had the same problem 'cause we talked about, you know? The heights that those characters had to go to, you know, and it's very different because at that stage if you're wearing clothes like that, you're probably doing a comedy or a p*ss-take. Sword and sandal things had been out of vogue for a long time. That whole idea was constructed around the sincerity of the core journey of man's vengeance for the death of his wife and child."

"It's funny, though," the father-of-two added.

"You see the backstage or behind-the-scenes footage and everybody's just goofing around and being silly. And you know, the reason you do that is you're saving all your serious [stuff] for after the guy says 'action'." 

Unhinged released in US theaters in August of 2020 to mixed reviews.

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