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Ridley Scott kept the “Gladiator II” cast on their toes by way of filling their ears. The auteur performed what was essentially a “live director’s commentary” on set for each scene over the cast and crew’s radios, according to actor Fred Hechinger.
Scott, who is known for his dark humor, would narrate sequences on the microphone while filming, and even added in jokes. Hechinger told IndieWire that the ensemble cast, which also includes Paul Mescal, Pedro Pascal, Denzel Washington, Connie Britton, and Joseph Quinn, would listen in to Scott’s commentary even when they were not in a scene.
“I think Ridley is very funny,” Hechinger said. “He uses humor himself, I would say, like an as a tool in his director’s toolbox. He creates a kind of camaraderie through jokes. The actors and crew literally tune into the radio to listen to his commentary of scenes when they’re not in them because he’s kind of doing like live director’s commentary of a scene as it’s happening. It’s very humorous.”
Hechinger continued that the “very dynamic” tone of “Gladiator II” is reflective of Scott’s signature humor mixed with onscreen violence, resulting in character studies of the impact of impulsitivity.
“The movie is brutal and it’s also very darkly funny in that way. It’s like something can be terrifying and funny at the same time,” Hechinger said. “It’s a form of survival. I also didn’t want to avoid the ways in which my character is ridiculous as well.”
Hechinger plays the outrageous Emperor Caracalla, who rules Rome alongside his twin, Emperor Geta (Joseph Quinn).
“I think humor is a very real part of life. I always find it weird when you watch something that’s just not funny at all because even in the most tragic times of my life, I’ve found there’s always laughter. I also think with these days, the way that the violence gets branded as entertainment hinges on it being funny as well. It’s a kind of sugar to get the spice there,” Hechinger said of balancing how Caracalla came across onscreen.
To prepare for “Gladiator II,” Hechinger also worked closely with co-star Quinn to have a brotherly bond early on.
“Joe [Quinn] and I worked closely at the outset. We had a kind of partnership preparation which was very unusual in my experience of film,” Hechinger said, citing how a lot of their prep work took place in the constructed Coliseum amid real crowds of thousands. “The Coliseum scenes were sometimes built in tandem. There was a public nature of it. I think we had the legitimate fear of we have to present to the Coliseum today and we knew that it being a set and all, that colosseum would be filled with people and those people wouldn’t be quieted down. We would have to get them to listen to us, which again is like an amazing gift as an actor.”
Hechinger credited Scott’s spur-of-the-moment choices as a director to creating an authentic atmosphere both on the set and the screen. In turn, filming “Gladiator II” felt like being in a play.
“It felt more like theater in that regard, like the scope and the scale of the movie is so epic and big in that way, the pace is so breakneck, that the process was one of like utter immersion and accepting that you are a part of this environment that’s around you and just figuring out how to reckon with that environment. It also really moves so fast,” Hechinger said of Scott’s set. “You can do more takes if you want but there’s a world sometimes where it’s like [Scott] has covered it so much that if it’s one take, it could be one take. That also has a very theatrical element to it because that’s how it is like doing plays. In that moment, you can never go back, you know? It’s closer to my experience of life as well. There’s no rewind; you have one chance.”
He continued of playing a ruling emperor, “Usually on some film sets, there’s just a kind of discreet separation of all the action. You film a set up over here and a reaction five weeks later on a soundstage. In this case, you really have hundreds and hundreds of people acting as they wish to. You, as an actor, have to affect something upon them. You have to figure out a way to be heard, which I think inspires not just a performance but ideally a genuine presence or an attempt at something desperate and exciting. You’re not being saved or treated in a protected way. I think this is true, generally speaking, of people’s experiences of life: There’s no way to tell a crowd to be quiet in life, the crowd has to decide to be quiet. I felt that on the set in a really amazing way.”
Hechinger pointed to one particular sequence that was improvised with the crowd of extras.
“I remember I did a scene where I got into a carriage and it was like hundreds and hundreds of actors playing Romans who were screaming full volume, like, ‘Down with the emperor, down with the emperor!’ This is not something that was like written down in the scene. This was just a continuation of that moment,” Hechinger said. “And so you have a group of all these incredible background artists that have fully immersed themselves in the environment and the condition and the emotion of the time. You can’t expect that. That’s something I’ve not experienced on a set to that scale before. And it’s really exciting. I’ll say this as an actor: I want to be surprised. That’s the one of the great joys, surprise.”
And there was no one on set who surprised Hechinger more than Denzel Washington. “Every single day, Denzel will surprise you,” Hechinger said. “That’s part of why he’s one of our greatest actors.”
A Paramount Pictures release, “Gladiator II” is now in theaters.
English (US) ·