Russell Crowe Rips Into ‘Gladiator 2’ And Says Women Came Up To Him Upset About Maximus Having An Illegitimate Son

When you have a great movie like The Gladiator, it’s never a good idea to make another one. Unfortunately, they did, and no one is more annoyed about how it turned out than Russell Crowe. So much so that he won’t even refer to the movie by its title, but rather, as “the recent sequel we don’t have to name.”

Crowe, who played Maximus in the original, strongly criticised the creative direction of Gladiator 2, particularly the decision to reveal that his character, Maximus, had an illegitimate son (Lucius) with Lucilla.

Crowe, 61, reckons this twist undermines the “moral core” of the original film, and says that upset fans, particularly women in Europe, have approached him to complain about it.

Crowe said: “[It’s] a really unfortunate example of even the people in that engine room not actually understanding what made the first one special … It wasn’t the circumstance. It wasn’t the action. It was the moral core.”

“So you’re saying at the same time he had this relationship with his wife, he was f-cking this other girl? … What are you talking about? It’s crazy.”

That is pretty crazy, to be fair. Very un-Maximus like.

On European women being especially upset about it: “The women in Europe, when that movie started coming out, I would be at a restaurant, and they’d come talk to me [and complain],” Crowe recalled before adding. “It’s like, ‘Hey, it wasn’t me! I didn’t do it.’”

Elsewhere in the interview with Triple J radio in Australia, he discusses how there’d be daily fights on the set of Gladiator 1 over some of the ideas Ridley Scott had. It sounds like maybe the filmmaker had similar nonsensical ideas for the first film and Crowe was shutting them down. Would’ve been good if there was someone on the set of Gladiator 2 to do the same thing, from the sounds of it.

Still, it is pretty funny to imagine Russell Crowe having dinner with his family at some nice restaurant in Italy, only to be interrupted by a crazy lady yelling at him about his illegitimate fictional son. As lucky and privileged as celebrities are, they do have to put up with some proper nutjobs in their day-to-day lives.

For the story of how Michael Jackson used to terrorise Russell Crowe with prank phone calls, click HERE. WTF?