“They failed because they didn’t understand why [the original movie] was successful — it was successful because it had a moral core,” the Oscar winner said.

Russell Crowe fought against Gladiator sex scenes, again slams sequel for ‘failed’ moral center

"They failed because they didn’t understand why [the original movie] was successful — it was successful because it had a moral core," the Oscar winner said.

Joey Nolfi

Joey Nolfi is a senior writer at *. *Since 2016, his work at EW includes RuPaul’s Drag Race video interviews, Oscars predictions, and more.

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on June 15, 2026 11:02 a.m. ET

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Russell Crowe in 'Gladiator'. Credit:

- Russell Crowe has once again spoken out against the *Gladiator* sequel.

- The Oscar-winning actor also said he pushed back against including sex scenes in the 2000 original.

- Crowe said he watched the sequel "destroy that moral center" established in the first film.

Oscar-winning actor Russell Crowe has once again spoken out against 2024's *Gladiator* sequel — and claimed he strongly pushed back against a behind-the-scenes proposal to include sex scenes between his character and Connie Nielsen's in the 2000 original.

Though he didn't return for *Gladiator II*, director Ridley Scott's follow-up to the Best Picture-winning hit, Crowe has long voiced opposition to the project, including in a recent appearance at the Taormina Film Festival, where he also reflected on preserving the emotional core of the first project.

“What happened when we were shooting that film, there was a lot of pressure to bow to a desire that the studio and one of the producers had at the time that there should be sex scenes between Maximus and the female characters. And I just kept pushing back," Crowe said at the event, per Deadline.

Russell Crowe in 'Gladiator'.

Speaking of the film's plot, he continued, “This is the story about a man who's avenging the death of his wife and his child,” adding that, "There cannot be a moment on that journey where he stops and has sex with somebody. It doesn’t make any sense because then that destroys the journey.”

Crowe maintained that he "stuck to my guns," and that Scott, whom he said would've "loved a sex scene between me and [lead actress] Connie Nielsen," ultimately "he agreed with me back then that that was the moral core of the film."

The actor then turned his focus to the 2024 sequel, for which he did not reprise his role, though Nielsen did.

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Crowe said he felt the film "failed" both at the box office and with audiences because it didn't stick to the emotional soul that he said he helped establish in the first film, which won Best Picture and Best Actor for Crowe at the Oscars.

“For them, in a second movie to destroy that moral center… it’s very interesting, because the second movie barely took the same box office that the first movie took. But, that’s 20 years later," he said, referencing *Gladiator II*'s $462 million global haul (the first film made $466 million 24 years earlier).

"When you apply how much of a change there’s been on the value of a dollar, they failed," Crowe observed. "And they failed because they didn’t understand why [the original movie] was successful — it was successful because it had a moral core."

Russell Crowe in 'Gladiator'.

* *has reached out to Scott's representative for comment on Crowe's remarks.

Crowe didn't return for Scott's 2024 film, as his character, a Roman general named Maximus, died at the end of the first film. The sequel follows actor Paul Mescal as Lucius, later revealed to be Maximus' son with Nielsen's Lucilla. Crowe initially took issue with the sequel essentially rewriting what he believed to be Maximus' moral center, as Maximus largely fought in the gladiatorial arena to avenge the deaths of his wife and son.

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"So you're saying that at the same time [that] he had this relationship with his wife, he was f---ing this other girl?" Crowe said in video footage previously shared to Triple J's social media account. "What are you talking about? It's crazy."

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