Russell Crowe Wasn’t Sure He’d End up Liking Joaquin Phoenix Until He Got Him Drunk
Actor Russell Crowe admitted that he wasn’t sure he’d be able to get along with Joaquin Phoenix when they starred in Gladiator. So Crowe tried to gauge Phoenix’s personality by taking his co-star on a night out.
Russell Crowe got Joaquin Phoenix drunk before filming ‘Gladiator’
Phoenix admitted to having quite a bit of anxiety going into the Ridley Scott feature Gladiator. The actor would be paired with Scott and Crowe when the latter’s career was reaching its prime. Crowe noticed his younger co-star’s anxiety.
He and his other Gladiator castmate Richard Harris came up with a plan to calm Phoenix down. This plan would also help them ascertain whether or not they would enjoy Phoenix’s company.
“Harris and I got together and said, ‘How are we going to make Joaquin Phoenix relax?’ And his solution was, ‘Let’s get him drunk and we’ll find out if we like him first before we bother working with him.’ And it was maybe an old-fashioned concept, but it worked very well,” Crowe recalled to The Morning Call.
From there, the veteran actor confided that he had more than a good time working with Phoenix.
“I am very pleased to tell you that Joaquin Phoenix is a magnificent young man and a wonderful poet. That came out at about 3:300 in the morning,” Crowe said.
Russell Crowe revealed what made Joaquin Phoenix so nervous on the ‘Gladiator’ set
Crowe and Phoenix had similar reactions to being on Gladiator for different reasons. Crowe didn’t have the highest confidence in Scott’s movie after reading the script.
“Gladiator is my 20-something-th movie, so I was confident about my abilities as a lead man. What I wasn’t confident about with Gladiator was the world that was surrounding me. At the core of what we were doing was a great concept, but the script.. it was rubbish. Absolute rubbish,” Crowe recalled to Vanity Fair not too long ago.
There were many ideas in the movie’s original script that Crowe didn’t believe would sit well with audiences. This included demonstrating how real Gladiators had endorsement deals and a considerable amount of fame and celebrity due to their statuses. Despite Crowe’s reservations, Scott managed to anchor Crowe to the project.
“The energy around what we were doing was very fractured. I did think a couple times, maybe my best option is just to get on a plane and get out of here, you know? It was my continued conversations with Ridley that sort of gave me faith,” Scott said.
Crowe revealed that Phoenix’s reservations about the movie was more about the film’s scope than its quality.
“Joaquin was going through the same thing as I was,” Crowe said. “When you walk onto a set that big, it’s very easy for imposter syndrome to come over you. It’s like ‘What am I gonna do with this.’ He would go to his costume appointments, and they would put him in this armor and all this finery. I remember one day he said to Ridley, ‘Ridley I don’t understand. You know I’m a kid from Florida. What am I supposed to do in this? Go out and wave to people?’ And Ridley‘s like ‘Yeah, that’s what you’re supposed to do.’”
Joaquin Phoenix always gets uncontrollably nervous when making movies
Phoenix’s anxiety wasn’t only exclusive to Gladiator. In an interview with Esquire (via Belfast Telegraph), the Oscar-winner revealed that he feels nervous with every movie he makes.
“I don’t know my craft. Every f***ing movie I feel like it’s my first. I’m uncontrollably shaking, physically nervous. No way am I like, ‘Yeah, I got this’. Every time feels f***ing terrifying. They have to put f***ing pads in my armpits because I sweat so much,” he said.
