Joseph Quinn had some big sandals to fill as a villain in Ridley Scott‘s long-awaited sequel to 2000’s Gladiator.
The Gladiator II star recently opened up about the “reverence” he has for Joaquin Phoenix‘s performance as Commodus in the original movie as he revealed some inspirations for his portrayal of Roman emperor Geta.
“For obvious reasons, Joaquin Phoenix’s performance was something that was in our minds,” explained Quinn to Empire. “It was something we had a reverence for, but we didn’t want to…. soil with some kind of poor rendition.”
Instead, Quinn turned to Philip Seymour Hoffman’s performance in Mission: Impossible III, as well as Gary Oldman in The Fifth Element, whom he said “has this relish for being horrible.”
In the sequel, Emperor Geta rules alongside his brother, Emperor Caracalla (Fred Hechinger), whom Scott described to Empire as “the equivalent of Romulus and Remus” in Roman mythology.
Joseph Quinn as Geta in Gladiator II (2024) character poster. (Paramount Pictures/Courtesy Everett Collection)
“You know, the two lunatics who formed Rome but were bred from the milk of a wolf?” the director explained. “[Caracalla and Geta] came up a different way but were probably brain-damaged.”
Gladiator II stars Paul Mescal as Lucius, who previously witnessed Maximus (portrayed in the original by Russell Crowe) die at the hands of his uncle Commodus (Phoenix) in the first movie. Now an adult, Lucius is forced to enter the Colosseum and fight to return glory to the people of Rome.
Premiering November 15 internationally and November 22 in the US and Canada, Gladiator II also stars Denzel Washington, Pedro Pascal and Connie Nielsen, who reprises her role as Lucius’ mother Lucilla from the original movie.
Quinn previously raved about working with Scott, who celebrated his 86th birthday last year, as a self-proclaimed “massive fan” of the director’s work.
“He conducts himself with such a vigor, and thirst, for life and also filmmaking, still—he just loves it, and that is very infectious,” Quinn told Men’s Health. “Working with him… I was never expecting to do that, obviously, and so I was incredibly grateful. I just tried, like we all did, to be as present as we could, and to understand that this was a very rare thing. Outside of making the film itself, it was a very rare experience as a human being to bear witness to ancient Rome. He built ancient Rome! Not a lot of people can do that—Ridley Scott can.”
