00:00It feels great. I mean, you know, Ridley and I had a chance to work together on American
00:10Gangster. I have the utmost respect for him as a visionary, as a filmmaker, and he makes
00:19the actor's job easier, especially in this case. I mean, he built Rome for us and I enjoyed
00:27it.
00:30We don't have that much time. I do everything that I need to do. I mean, it's months of
00:37preparation. I'll be 70 in December. I played Othello at 22 and the Emperor Jones at 20,
00:47so I've been preparing for this role for 50 years.
00:56We'll see. I mean, I don't know. I don't know. You know, people say, whenever I hear
01:02what do you expect people to get from a film, I always say it depends upon what they bring
01:05to it. So, it'll be fascinating to find out what this generation thinks.
01:16Ridley Scott is what drew me to this film and, you know, if he asks, I say yes. I have
01:25the utmost respect for him. The opportunity, obviously, to be a part of this gladiator
01:31story and a very interesting part to play and had a good time doing it as well.
01:46Just the size and scope of the film, you know, the sets and we went to Morocco and Malta
01:53and I've never been on a film, I don't think, of this size, with this scale. Again, as I
02:01said, Ridley fashioned a brilliant film.
02:09Like I said, I've been studying acting for 50 years and it's a long process. It's not
02:15one I can just say, oh, this is something I did. You know, it's a process. It's what
02:20I do and I still enjoy it.
02:27Well, you know, I kind of stay to myself a bit, so I'm not there to chit-chat too much.
02:39One of the emperors, we had to deal with his monkey on his shoulder all the time. But,
02:45you know, I kind of stay, keep it kind of tight.
02:49You know, my job was easy. I sat up in the Coliseum and the boy was down there, you know,
02:56doing all the hard work and he did a brilliant job. There's a tremendous amount of pressure,
03:03you know, for him coming behind Russell from 20 some odd years ago and, you know, I think
03:12I know something about acting and I can tell you he delivers.
03:20No, no, no. I didn't give him any tips. No, because, again, most of the, when I first
03:27got there, most of the scenes we shot first were in the Coliseum. So, he was down on the
03:32Coliseum floor and I was up above. So, I didn't really talk to him a lot until we got into
03:38some scenes later on.
03:40We'll see. Is there any message the movie sends, you mean?
03:45Yes.
03:46That's a question, I think, for the director, not for the actor. I don't know if he has
03:51a message he wants to send, but that's something you should ask him.
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