Joseph Quinn had some big shoes to fill as the villain in Ridley Scott’s long-awaited sequel from the 2000s. Gladiator.
He Gladiator II The star recently spoke about the “reverence” he feels for Joaquin Phoenix’s portrayal of Commodus in the original film and revealed some inspirations for his portrayal of Roman Emperor Geta.
“For obvious reasons, Joaquin Phoenix’s performance was something we had in mind,” Quinn explained to Empire“It was something we had reverence for, but we didn’t want… to be misinterpreted.”
Instead, Quinn turned to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance in Mission: Impossible IIIas well as Gary Oldman in The fifth elementof whom he said “he has this taste for being horrible.”
In the sequel, Emperor Geta rules alongside his brother, Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), whom Scott described Empire as “the equivalent of Romulus and Remus” in Roman mythology.
Joseph Quinn as Geta en Gladiator II (2024) character poster. (Paramount Pictures/Courtesy of the Everett Collection)
“You know, the two madmen who formed Rome but were raised on wolf’s milk?” the director explained.[Caracalla and Geta] They emerged in a different way but they probably had brain damage.”
Gladiator II It stars Paul Mescal as Lucius, who previously witnessed the death of Maximus (played in the original by Russell Crowe) at the hands of his uncle Commodus (Phoenix) in the first film. Lucius, now an adult, is forced to enter the Colosseum and fight to restore glory to the people of Rome.
It will be released on November 15 internationally and on November 22 in the US and Canada. Gladiator II It also stars Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal and Connie Nielsen, who reprises her role as Lucilla, Lucius’ mother, from the original film.
Quinn previously praised his work with Scott, who celebrated his 86th birthday last year, as a self-proclaimed “huge fan” of the director’s work.
“Yet he carries himself with such vigor and thirst for life and also for making films… he just loves it, and that’s very contagious,” Quinn said. Men’s Health“Working with him… I never expected to do that, obviously, and so I was incredibly grateful. I just tried, as we all did, to be as present as possible and understand that this was a very rare thing. Aside from making the movie itself, it was a very rare experience as a human being to witness ancient Rome. He built ancient Rome! Not many people can do that; Ridley Scott can.”
