Inside Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix's On-Set 'Gladiator' Tension

Director Ridley Scott returned to ancient Rome for the upcoming Gladiator II, arriving more than two decades after the original starring Russell Crowe and Joaquin Phoenix. When looking back on the first installment, Scott didn't exactly think the vibes on set between the two stars were the best. 

The Alien director spoke to The New York Times about the Gladiator series and shared a moment from the filming of the first movie where Phoenix got on Crowe's nerves. 

"[Joaquin] was in his prince’s outfit saying, 'I can’t do it,'" Scott recounted. "I said, 'What?' And Russell said, 'This is terribly unprofessional.'"

"I can act as a big brother or dad. But I’m quite a friend of Joaquin’s," Scott continued. "Gladiator was a baptism of fire for both of us in the beginning."

Related: ‘Gladiator’ Star Reveals True Feelings on Paul Mescal Replacing Him for Sequel

Phoenix, for his part, found the experience of making Gladiator "one of the most intimidating" of his career, according to a 2018 interview with Collider. 

"The first set that I went on was just massive," the Joker star remembered. "It looked like it was acres of land, and tons of trucks and trailers and, you know, hundreds of extras, and multiple cameras. Suddenly the scale of this hit me and I was overwhelmed by that. I didn't think that I was going to be able to make it through that."

"I went to [Scott] and said, 'I don’t know what to do, I just can't do this. I don't know what you're gonna do. This just isn’t gonna be possible.' And Ridley was really smart. He just shot me for four hours and he didn't put film in the camera...he wasn't gonna waste film. He's like, 'It's gonna be hours before this kid f--king gets anything, if at all, so I'm not gonna waste film,'" he remembered. 

Gladiator II is in theaters Nov. 22.