Ah, the early 00s. A time when
Paris Hilton was proclaiming things "hot,"
David Usher was a national treasure, and people actually went to movies starring
Russell Crowe.
Whatever happened to that? Ah, he's a huge jerk, that's what happened. A new book about the studio that made
Gladiator, Dreamworks, has a few stories that will ease any lingering guilt about skipping the last seven movies he made.
According to
The Men Who Would Be King, excerpted by
Gawker, Russell thought parts of the
Gladiator script were awful and that he was holding the scenes together.
He hated the dialogue in the film's big reveal, where he takes off his helmet and declares, "I will have my vengeance, in this life or the next." He thought it sounded fake, and forced director
Ridley Scott to shoot an alternate rewritten version.
Ridley thought both versions were great at the time, while Russell thought they both sucked. Luckily for everyone involved, Russell was able to save the day. "It was sh-t, but I'm the greatest actor in the world and I can make even sh-t sound good," he said. Congratulations, Russell. Do you want an award for that? Oh, they gave you one? I see.
But Russell wasn't always a problem on set. He could be a problem anywhere. Even while producers slept they weren't safe. The book claims one of
Gladiator's producers, Branko Lustig, was startled awake at 3 am when the actor phoned him with this greeting: "You motherf--ker. I will kill you with my bare hands."
Continued...