By Miguel Mike Medina
Photo: Aidan Monaghan
Filmmaker Ridley Scott has an upcoming movie ‘Gladiator Two,” in theaters on Nov 22.
The first Gladiator movie, directed by Scott, came out in 2000. Scott is one of the best directors to ever do it. His longevity is phenomenal—he’s 86 years old and still going strong.
The cast of Gladiator 2 shared their thoughts and experiences working with Scott and in this project.
During an exclusive interview with Fandango, Denzel Washington, who portrays Macrinus, he shared his thoughts about not having fun watching the film alone.
I saw the film alone, and that’s not fun,” Washington said. “All you’re looking at is what’s wrong. I haven’t seen the finished film, and I haven’t seen it with an audience.”
Washington is a prominent critic of himself and believes many actors also do.
Actor Paul Mescal, who portrays Lucius, has not done an action scene. He explained the fight scenes.
“That was an incredible day,” Mescal said. “It was these incredible stunt men on these mini crutches, so they were rolling around and like whatever it is 110-degree Heat, and they had worked for weeks and weeks to simulate the movement of the baboon kind of so that it would be easier to CG it. Ridley was a big fan of the biting of the baboon as if you could hear him kind of audibly laughing after each take.”
Mescal also praises Scott for being a wonderful storyteller.
“Ridley’s a genius,” Mescal said. “He shoots it in a way that feels plausible, but in like the real action of that, there’s no way they would have shared that moment.”
Pedro Pascal discussed how he became involved in the project in an interview with Entertainment Weekly.
“It started with an actual meeting with Ridley to go and sit down with him,” Pascal said. “It wasn’t even about getting the job; it was like I’m going to go and sit down maybe five minutes, 10, 20 as many minutes. It was in LA. It was at his office, and thankfully, he was willing to talk about all the things that I wanted to know about in terms of other movies.”
Gladiator One grossed $465.4 million worldwide and won five Academy Awards, including Best Picture and Best Actor.
Gladiator Two has received strong consideration for contend for this year’s Academy Awards.
Could it finally be the time to reward Scott for Best Director?
Scott received three Oscar nominations for “Thelma & Louise” (1991), Gladiator (2000), and “Black Hawk Down” (2001).
Miguel Mike Medina is the publisher of The MMM Journal. He can be reached at medinamiguelmike@gmail.com
X: @mmm_sportnfilms, Instagram: @miguel_passionforsports, TikTok: @miguelmikemedina