Director Ridley Scott’s return to the world of ancient Rome in a long-awaited sequel to his 2000 box office smash Gladiator is bringing a host of new faces to the franchise.
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Coming 24 years after the Oscar-winning original hit theatres, Gladiator IIfollows the heroic Lucius (Paul Mescal) — the son of Maximus (Russell Crowe) and Lucilla (Connie Nielsen) from the first film. After being captured by Roman general Marcus Acacius (Pedro Pascal), Lucius finds himself a pawn in a power play being made by Macrinus (Denzel Washington), a ruthless arms dealer and former slave looking to overthrow Rome’s insane twin emperors, Geta and Caracalla (Joseph Quinn and Fred Hechinger).
As one of the film’s main antagonists, Quinn, the British actor who blew up thanks to his scene-stealing role as Eddie Munson in the fourth season of Stranger Things, says he tried to channel Joaquin Phoenix’s villainous Commodus from the original.
“I think the ghost of Joaquin Phoenix could be seen in the Colosseum sometimes,” Quinn, 30, says Zooming in from London on an early Sunday morning. “We tried not to look at him too much, but we doffed our caps to him, or our laurels I should say … It felt like we should claim it in a way and make it our own. But his performance was something that I used.”
Alongside Hechinger, the two dastardly menaces rule Rome with an insatiable thirst for blood. With bright hair, glammed-up robes, jewels, makeup and a pet monkey, the pair steal every scene they are both in.
Scott says the characters, which were inspired by real-life brothers, “are not normal, in a very interesting way.”
“They are already a bit insane when we meet them,” Scott says. “Their father succeeded Commodus, and they inherited the throne. They ran Rome a little off the rails.”
Hechinger says Caracalla is “unhinged,” while Quinn describes his character as a “sadistic, ruthless emperor who is every bit as unpleasant as his brother.”
But both of them agree that playing a villain was fun to sink their teeth into.
“You’re allowed the opportunity to behave in a way that if you acted like that in the real world, you’d get locked up. So that’s quite liberating in a way,” Quinn says.
Smiling alongside his onscreen partner, Hechinger, 24, echoes Quinn’s sentiments.
“Courting that darkness is real privilege of art,” he explains.
Seemingly overnight, Quinn has gone from co-starring on Netflix’s megahit franchise to roles in this past summer’s box office hit A Quiet Place: DayOne, Next up, Quinn will star in Alex Garland’s Warfare, Bret Easton Ellis’ forthcoming directorial debut Relapse, and Marvel’s upcoming Fantastic Four, in which he plays the Human Torch.
Working with Scott is the high point in a career that keeps getting bigger and better.
“It’s hard to pick your favourite Ridley Scott film. Blade Runner, Alien, the original Gladiator, those are all big films for me. Thelma & Louise … I could go on all day,” Quinn says.
Likewise, Hechinger says he too was thrilled to be included in the cast.
“Thelma & Louise is one of those Ridley Scott films that I’ve watched over and over. I’m so in awe of those performances and that film,” he says. “It’s so beautifully made. It’s true of all of Ridley’s work. He can make these huge spectacles and yet they’re so concerned with the characters and the intimacy of the people within the frame.”
But to get to star in a follow-up to Gladiator is probably an even bigger highlight for the pair.
Hechinger recalls how he couldn’t get enough of the landmark swords-and-sandals epic growing up.
“Anytime it was on TV, I would watch it to the end, no matter what. It was one of the first movies where I could talk back to the TV just by osmosis because I had seen it so many times,” he says.
Quinn calls the original a “seminal film for me.”
“I watched it when I was between 10 and 13 with my stepdad. I remember it being on TV all the time and there’s still so much to get from it. Even from a 20th viewing, it’s still surprising and it can utterly transport you in a way that film rarely does,” he says.
Gladiator II is now playing in theatres.