Russell Crowe Was Nearly Mauled By a Tiger While Filming 'Gladiator'
As Ridley Scott’s incredible epic Gladiator turns 20 this year, the cast and creators sat down with Variety to discuss how the film came to be. As it turns out, making Gladiator is about as deadly as being an actual gladiator. With close calls with tigers, near-stabbings, and an actual death while on break from filming, the production of Gladiator sounds like it was fraught with danger.
The film follows a former general named Maximus (Russell Crowe) who draws the ire of Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius's son Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) after the general is chosen to succeed the emperor. But, before Marcus Aurelius can make his plan public, Commodus kills his father and has Maximus assassinated by his own soldiers. Maximus escapes the assassination, and gets enslaved as a gladiator to compete in deadly events for the entertainment of the masses. The film, with a massive budget of over $100 million, was filmed across Europe. The iconic coliseum was constructed in Malta and stood nearly 52 feet tall before CGI enhancements. Inside, the choreographed battle scenes were nearly as dangerous as the real thing.
Djimon Hounsou, who plays Juba in the film, told Variety, "I almost accidentally stabbed somebody in the head in the fight sequence in the Colosseum when Maximus gets on the horse." He adds, "Most of us got carried away and I think when you’re truly doing it for real, the pretend sort of goes out of the way and the emotional takes over, so a lot of people got hurt."
In one of the more memorable fight scenes, Crowe's character faces off with a tiger. That didn't come without risk either. Speaking with Variety, director Ridley Scott recalls:
Russell said, 'OK, release them,' and when Russell would fall back, the tiger would come out of the hole and Russell would roll out of the way and he said, 'Fuck me, that was close.' And I said, 'We were there as well, Russell. Hey, you were two feet, I was like four feet.'
The only death related to Gladiator happened off the set though. Before the epic was finished filming, Oliver Reed, who played Antonius Proximo, died of a heart attack after a stint of drinking at a local pub. Additional scenes were dubbed using CGI. Reed's character was initially not slated to die, but the script was revised to include his death after his untimely passing.
Initially, the role that Crowe would go on to play wasn’t even on his radar. Mel Gibson was rumored to have been offered the role first but turned it down because he felt he was too old. Crowe went on to win the Academy Award for the role, but not without having to seriously work for it. According to the Variety piece, when Crowe auditioned, he had a shaved head and had gained weight for another role. The ripped physique needed to play Maximus Decimus Meridius came later (and was maintained with on set weight lifting).
In the end, Gladiator became one of the most awarded films of 2000, nabbing five of its 12 nominations at the Academy Awards. After that talk with Variety, you can't say that the cast and crew didn't sufficiently earn it.
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