Join us for an exclusive interview with the cast of Ridley Scott's Gladiator II! Hear from #PaulMescal, #DenzelWashington, #ConnieNielsen, and #FredHechinger. The cast dives into the film’s intense dynamics, behind-the-scenes fun, and what it’s like to carry on the legacy of an epic franchise. From Roman Empire thoughts to epic forehead kisses, we’ve got all the juicy details! Don’t miss this candid and chaotic chat with Hollywood’s finest.
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00:00I said Chicken Wings. Chicken Wings is always a go-to for me as a Roman Empire or the populations of cities.
00:08I'm trying to think what my Roman Empire is, but when we started filming, obviously I thought about the Roman Empire every day, all day.
00:17Hi, it's wonderful to see you. How are you?
00:20Yeah, good. How are you?
00:21I'm great. I'm so excited. I really loved the film. I saw it at the premiere in LA and it was wonderful.
00:28Thank you for being there and introducing it.
00:30Yeah, thanks.
00:31And I just have to ask, how often do you think of the Roman Empire?
00:36I thought about the Roman Empire much more when I was directly involved with the Roman Empire than I do today.
00:46But I think I've used up a lot of Roman Empire thoughts in the space of the last year.
00:54Yeah, so you're running out of…
00:56Yeah, I'm running out of steam with Roman Empire thoughts.
01:01That's understandable. And you saw a lot of the bad side of the Roman Empire, so I don't know if you want to…
01:08Yeah, I mean, yeah. Yeah, exactly. Lucius is the subject of everything that is kind of wrong about the Roman Empire.
01:17Right, so it's a lot of sad things. Do you have your sort of Roman Empire that you do think of now instead of the Roman Empire?
01:24Like as in my Roman Empire?
01:26Yeah, your Roman Empire. Yes.
01:28I never fucking… What is my Roman Empire? I said Chicken Wings. Chicken Wings is always a go-to for me as a Roman Empire or the populations of cities, I would say.
01:43I like knowing what's… Whenever I'm in a new city, I like to…
01:49Do you know the numbers off the top of your head of population?
01:52But I was in Austin recently and I was like… Until I found out exactly what… Like it's 982,000. So does that qualify as Roman Empire?
02:04I think so, if that's what you want. Yeah, great. I mean, I think mine is the end of normal people and I blame you for that, even though you did not write it, but…
02:14But yeah, I was directly involved.
02:16Yep, it's your fault. I do have to ask you about the Pedro forehead kiss because I talked to Denzel and he was telling me that he also kissed a man and that was cut. So are there other kisses that we don't know about?
02:33Yeah, it was pretty much every scene that I was in, I just tried to get a kiss in and then Ridley just… Yeah, that's kind of my calling card anyway, as it is. So no, that's the only one for me that was cut.
02:49Oh man. Okay, so did Pedro know about the kiss or was it spontaneous?
02:53It was spontaneous and he was… Yeah, it was spontaneous.
03:02Well, I will need the footage. I need you to email that to me once you get it.
03:06I'll let Ridley know that we need to get it ASAP.
03:09Thank you. And this question is, I mean, how are you handling the nerves of headlining a Ridley Scott Gladiator sequel?
03:19I think I'm doing all right. I think it helps that we've seen initial audience responses to the film and it's gone down really well. So I think it puts us collectively as a team at ease going into the next few weeks. So thankfully people are enjoying it.
03:38I loved the film. I wore rings inspired by your character.
03:44Yeah, I see you got all ten fingers. There you go.
03:48Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. Double sometimes, you know, you got to get them all in.
03:52What about the earring game?
03:54Oh, yeah. Oh, yeah. I mean, your game is probably better than mine, but I'm trying. I'm trying to be as cool as him because really he's very cool.
04:07And I just I wanted to get started in a recent Q&A that you did.
04:12You mentioned your excitement to work with Ridley Scott and that he was a big part of you wanting to be in this film.
04:19So I'm curious, is there any other directors that you would sign on to a project in a heartbeat if you saw their name?
04:27I've been having great conversation or I've had some great conversations with Paul Thomas Anderson and Steve McQueen.
04:38Ryan Coogler, all great directors, and I don't know, I would love to work with them.
04:44Absolutely. I can't wait to see something in the future.
04:48And you work alongside Paul Meskel.
04:51And I have to ask, is it is it difficult being tough and sometimes ruthless to him when he seems like like such a sweetheart?
04:58Your character has to has to kind of get into him sometimes.
05:03Yeah. Being a little sensitive, he's a sweetheart. Is that a sweetheart?
05:08Well, you would know better than me. So you know, I'm supposed to kill him.
05:11I mean, he's a sweetheart. See, that's what's wrong. That's what's wrong.
05:15This world. No, I'm sorry. What was the question? You said what?
05:20You said was it hard to want to kill him because he was. Yes. Was it?
05:24No, I want power. I want everything. I want it all.
05:28So, no, it wasn't hard. Well, no, I can't give it away.
05:31How it turns out. Right. Right. Well, we'll have to see who wins in the end.
05:35But but you were you were on your own side. I love to see that.
05:40And your character makes a few remarks throughout the film about having a relationship with other men in the film.
05:47So I wanted to ask how how gay is the Roman Empire?
05:51The entire empire or the I actually kissed a man in the film, but they took it.
05:57They cut it. I think they got chicken. I kissed him.
05:59I was going to ask because I just heard about the Paul and Pedro forehead kiss that apparently got cut.
06:06Oh, I'm not sure about that one. But, yeah, I kissed the guy full on the lips.
06:10And they I guess they weren't ready for that yet. Oh, man.
06:15I killed him about five minutes later. But, you know, I mean, it's glad you got a gladiator.
06:21Who's the kiss of death? And we I know we can't say a lot about what goes on in the film,
06:26but there is a prop that you use towards the end to kind of wield power over others.
06:32And it's kind of disturbing. I just wanted to ask, you know, what was your what was your reaction to that?
06:39If you can say anything on it and how you went about that scene.
06:43You got to stay ahead of the game. Did you catch me?
06:50You know what I was saying? I love that. I love that.
06:54What is it about the world of Gladiator that draws you back and makes you want to carry this story forward?
07:01It's Ridley. It really is a question of Ridley. And then my obsession with with a.k.a. Greece and ancient Rome.
07:11I just have always had this obsession with history and philosophy.
07:16And then there's an obsession with Ridley as a filmmaker.
07:20And having the two in one package is just irresistible and truly, truly creatively life giving.
07:29And a really strong, visceral experience as a as an as an artist.
07:35So if someone were to ask you how often you thought of the Roman Empire, you would probably say often.
07:41Yeah. And it was especially like when I was younger, it was one of the moments that really so interested me.
07:49I was interested in why it is that societies, especially so-called golden age societies, cycle out of their golden age.
07:59And I've always wanted to understand.
08:02You know, I think because I was born in the 60s and I sort of had this idea that we'd just come past like the Second World War.
08:13And the losses of that Second World War that were very viscerally alive to me as a young kid in Europe.
08:23And and it just seemed impossible that people could have done that to each other.
08:28And so I think I was just drawn to history to to try to understand why, why this happened, you know.
08:37And so that's will account for my obsession with with with it and the Roman Empire as well.
08:44Yeah, absolutely. And in this film, you're one of the few powerful women that we see within the Roman Empire.
08:51So how did it feel to portray such a strong female figure in this setting?
08:56I just understand that there were no powerful women in Rome.
09:00Women had zero power. They had no status whatsoever except as society fixtures.
09:07And so that doesn't mean that women aren't powerful, as we all know, even today and always have known.
09:14You know, our power, we hold it within ourselves.
09:17And we have been working to make sure we don't only hold it in ourselves, but out in society.
09:23And so I have always been very inspired by female leaders throughout my time and taken my cue from amazing biographies and stories about women throughout history who have done incredible things.
09:38And so Lucilla is, in part, definitely inspired by some of all of those women who have taken power and wielded it well during many, many different times throughout history.
09:51In this case, she is someone who has not been allowed to hold power for herself, but who knows intrinsically what are the values and what are the things that Rome needs in order to fulfill its promise.
10:04I am so excited to discuss this film. I saw it a few weeks ago and it was amazing. You did a fantastic job. So thank you for your performance.
10:15OK, are you familiar with the trend of asking someone how often they think of the Roman Empire? Right.
10:22Yes. I'll be honest. I wasn't until I think it happened while we were filming.
10:28Like I hadn't heard that. And then in the middle of production, someone showed me that they were like, here's this thing on TikTok and everyone's asking about how often you think about the Roman Empire and all these guys are thinking about the Roman Empire like all the time.
10:42So you didn't think of the Roman Empire before the film then?
10:46I mean, I thought about it once occasionally, but not with any extreme regularity.
10:52Not like the usual? Yeah.
10:54Yeah, I guess not like what some others have said. I'm trying to think what my Roman Empire is. But when we started filming, obviously I thought about the Roman Empire every day, all day.
11:08I mean, it should be expected. But yeah, it is difficult. I don't know what my Roman Empire would be either. It's hard. I think right now it would be your pet monkey because they're wonderful, honestly.
11:23But it changes, you know? And I mean, I just wanted to ask, I feel like you have the most fun role in this movie. You got so lucky, at least in my opinion, you get to play such a wild character alongside Joseph and Dundas. So can you just tell me a little bit about if this was a dream role for you?
11:43It's beyond a dream. I feel very blessed and grateful right now because I feel you hit certain points where things you couldn't even fathom in your brain are around you. I love Ridley Scott's films. I would have never thought that I would have a monkey on my shoulder as well as being in them.
12:05You know, there are things that are just go beyond the imagination. And so, yeah, it was great. It was great working with Joseph and it was great working with Sherry is the name of the monkey that plays Dundas. It was great working with Sherry as well.
12:21Can you tell me just a little bit more about you working with Joseph and really just honing in on how chaotic you wanted to be, how evil, how funny, and just finding this balance of creating these twins?
12:34Yeah, we wanted them to be both codependent and highly competitive, sort of in a cycle with one another, you know, where they live for each other and they also live to destroy one another and that those things are connected and also a part of the family dynamic that precedes them. So you feel that sense of history.
12:51I loved working with Joe. I felt like we were an old vaudevillian duo just, you know, practicing our routine and then bringing it out into the world. And I also felt like there was these kind of unsaid connections that we both had independence and these secrets that we were harboring about the characters that would then come out in pivotal moments of the movie.