Russell Crowe Calls Original 'Gladiator' Script 'Absolute Rubbish'

Russell Crowe wasn't exactly impressed when he first read the script for Gladiator.

The actor, 59, discussed the 2000 movie and his initial thoughts on it during a look back at his illustrious career with Vanity Fair on Friday.

Reflecting on the Ridley Scott-directed drama, Crowe, who won an Academy Award for his performance, said that he thought the original script was "absolute rubbish."

"I was confident about my abilities as a leading man. What I wasn't confident about with Gladiator was the world that was surrounding me," said Crowe. "At the core of what we were doing was a great concept, but the script, it was rubbish, absolute rubbish."

He continued, "It had all these sort of strange sequences. One of them was about chariots and how famous gladiators used certain types of chariots and some famous gladiators had endorsement deals with products for olive oil and things like that, and that's all true, but it's just not going to ring right to a modern audience. They're going to go, 'What the f--- is all this?' The energy around what we were doing was very fractured."

Crowe went on to admit that he considered walking away from the film, which also won Best Picture at the Oscars, at one point. "I did think maybe a couple of times, maybe my best option is to just get on a plane and get out of here," he explained.

But he said it was his "continued conversations with Ridley that gave me faith." He continued, "He said to me at one point in time, 'Mate, we're not committing anything to camera that you don't believe in, 100%.' So when we actually started that film, we had 21 pages of script that we agreed on. A script is usually between 103 or four or 110 pages, something like that. So we had a long way to go, and we basically used up those pages in the first section of the movie. So by the time we got to our second location, which was Morocco, we were sort of catching up."

Crowe said that when he saw the finished product for the first time at a screening of the film, he was "blown away by it." "And when I first saw it with a crowd, that's when it really freaked me out because it was like going to a movie when I was a kid," he continued.

"People were so connected to the film and they were voicing that connection. The Emperor puts that knife under Maximus' arm towards the end. People were angry, they were standing in their seats and calling him a mother------ . And I was like, 'Whoa! This is big.' "

He added, "We made that film in 1999, and I'll bet you money, somewhere in the world tonight, that film is playing on primetime television. It has the longest legs and people, they're not just connected to it, but they love it with a passion."

Earlier this month, the Robin Hood star admitted that he's "slightly jealous" of the new Gladiator movie, which will star Normal People and Aftersun actor Paul Mescal.

"Look, the only thing that I really feel about it is slightly jealous, you know? Because I was a much younger man, obviously, and it was a huge experience in my life," Crowe told Collider.

"It's something that changed my life, really. It changed the way people regarded me and what I do for a living, and, you know, I've been very lucky to be involved in lots of big movies, but the legs on that film are incredible," said Crowe. "You don't always get that kind of longevity with every film you do, so, it obviously holds a special place in my heart."

Adding he doesn't know much about the long-awaited sequel, the Australian star continued, "I don't really know where they're going to go with it. I'm sure that [there have] been things on [Scott's] mind for the last 24 years that he thinks he can probably do better or something. I think that's one of the positives about it, for sure, that it is Ridley. Because he's going to want to go back into that world and create something the same level of spectacle as the first one."