Russell Crowe proudly recalled “sticking to his guns” about not having sex scenes with Connie Nielsen in Ridley Scott’s “Gladiator.” Speaking at the Taormina Film Festival, the New Zealand-born actor was asked about a “certain attitude” he showed about the 2024 sequel to his 2000 Oscar-winning epic. 

Crowe elaborated on the sequel’s issues by speaking at length about his moral stance regarding the original film. “When we were shooting that film, there was a lot of pressure. The studio, the producers [thought] there should be sex between Maximus and the female characters. I kept pushing back.”

“This is the story of a man avenging the death of his wife and his child,” he went on. “There cannot be a moment in that journey where he stops and has sex with somebody. It doesn’t make any sense because that destroys the journey.”

The actor said he “stuck to his guns.” “Luckily for me, Ridley, even though he’d love a sex scene between me and Connie Nielsen, agreed with me back then that that was the emotional core of the film.”

Crowe then noted how “Gladiator II” “failed” because it lacked that moral core: “For them, in a second movie to destroy that moral centre… it’s very interesting because the second movie barely took the same box office that the first movie took. That’s 20 years later… When you apply how much of a change there’s been on the value of a dollar, they failed. They failed because they didn’t understand why [the original movie] was successful — it had a moral core.”

Referring to the first “Gladiator,” he went on, “The studio at the time didn’t quite understand why [it was a success]. That’s the thing a lot of people don’t realize: from the second week of release globally, there were always more women in the theaters than men. You think that on the surface ‘Gladiator’ is a movie for men, but if it was a movie for men, it would be about revenge, but it’s not about revenge. It is a movie for women because it is about vengeance.”

“[‘Gladiator’] was successful because it had a moral core,” noted the actor. “In a way, we all want to be that guy who can stay that strong, if you’re a man. And if you’re a woman, we all want a man to love us in that way.”

Crowe is at the Sicilian festival on two fronts: as the recipient of the Taormina Film Festival International Achievement Award and for the world premiere of his latest, “Bear Country,” which reunites him with “Unhinged” director Derrick Borte. Also starring Aaron Paul, Nina Dobrev and Luke Evans, the Australian action thriller follows Crowe’s aging club owner whose dreams of retirement go awry when an armed robbery cleans out his business. Most of the film’s cast is expected to attend the glitzy world premiere at the festival later this evening, taking place at Taormina’s imposing Greek theater. 

The actor also spoke about the impact of streaming on theatrical exhibition, recalling a direct call from Netflix, when a representative told him he had “the most number one films on Netflix for any actor who never actually worked for Netflix.”

“Sure, you can watch something at home and in the comfort of your lounge room, with a nice television and a good sound system,” he added. “But the cinema experience, like the kind of thing we are having now, where you’re sitting next to people you don’t necessarily know to share an experience, we can’t let that go away. That part of the experience is so very important. It’s storytelling within a community.” 

He recalled being contacted by Netflix’s team with the impressive stats he achieved on the platform. “They keep buying up all titles, and people would research my name or whatever,” he added, saying some of the smaller films in his catalog, such as Paul Haggis’s “The Next Three Days,” ended up finding great success on the streamer. “I can’t be fully negative about it all because it’s done really well for me. Part of that fun conversation with Netflix was: you now need to start working for Netflix. So I’ve made a film with them, ‘Unabomber,’ that will come out in September or October.”

The Oscar-winning “Gladiator” actor also briefly spoke about another major action project he has in the pipeline: Chad Stahelski’s “Highlander” reboot. Crowe is set to play Juan Sánchez-Villalobos Ramírez in the film, which also stars Henry Cavill as Connor MacLeod and Dave Bautista as villain Kurgan.

“I just finished the shoot of ‘Highlander,’” he said. “It’s an Amazon production, and it’s going to be fantastic. It’s by Chad Stahelski, who directed all the ‘John Wick’ movies, so you know [he] is incapable of directing a film that is not exciting.” 

Lastly, Crowe briefly spoke about his recent role in “Nuremberg” and the “evil” we see in the world. “Evil can be charismatic,” he said, before issuing an alert: “There are situations right now in the world where political leaders are doing bad things, but they’re given a license and are voted in because of that charisma. Beware of that charisma.”