It turns out you won’t be able to look at a key scene in “Gladiator” the same way again.
In a recent interview with Empire (via Digital Spy), actor Russell Crowe revealed his famous “I will have my vengeance” speech in the Ridley Scott-directed 2000 blockbuster “Gladiator” works in part because the camera shot cuts off a bad hair day.
Around the middle of the movie, Crowe’s former general turned slave-gladiator Maximus stands in the middle of a battle arena and takes off his helmet for Emperor Commodus (Joaquin Pheonix) and, in tight close up, identifies himself along with swearing vengeance for his family’s murder.
The scene features in all the film’s trailers and is a key turning point in the film. However the film’s production was famously a long series of problems that cropped up and had to be solved on the day due to the elaborate scale and plenty of outdoor filming. Because of the latter, and a certain piece of costuming, that scene proved tricky to film:
“That helmet was full of static electricity and every time I took it off the hairs on the top of my head stood up. I tried doing it slowly, I tried doing it fast, but every time two hairs stand up like I’m a f–king Teletubby. So, [director Ridley Scott] solves it by going into a massive close-up, when I turn to face Commodus – it’s just forehead and chin and out of frame you can’t see the Teletubby hair wiggling in the wind.”
Crowe also says the scale of the production was stress inducing for Phoenix and Crowe had to sit him down for several pints of beer in order to calm him down.
