Russell Crowe saw Joaquin Phoenix as 'terribly unprofessional'

The stars of the original Gladiator movie didn't initially see eye to eye, according to their director Ridley Scott. Ridley, 86, spoke ahead of the release of his new sequel, Gladiator II, and revealed the male leads had a fundamental lack of rapport in the early days of shooting, as Joaquin felt too nervous to play his role and Russell found his hesitation frustrating. Joaquin, now 50, played the Roman emperor Commodus in the 2000 movie, opposite Russell, now 60, as Maximus, a vengeful general-turned-slave.