Ushering in a new generation of heroes, legendary director Ridley Scott continues the epic Gladiator saga of power, intrigue, and vengeance set in Ancient Rome with GLADIATOR II.
Returning to the fray as the tortured Lucilla, Connie Nielsen reprises her role from the Oscar-winning original, and as the creatives of the film arrived in Sydney to kick off the global promotional tour, the actress spoke with our own Peter Gray about collaborating again with Sir Ridley, working with Paul Mescal, and what's the one role of hers she would like to see "echo in eternity."
#gladiator #gladiator2 #ridleyscott #connienielsen #paulmescal #movie #interview #sydney #paramountpictures #lucilla #rome
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Returning to the fray as the tortured Lucilla, Connie Nielsen reprises her role from the Oscar-winning original, and as the creatives of the film arrived in Sydney to kick off the global promotional tour, the actress spoke with our own Peter Gray about collaborating again with Sir Ridley, working with Paul Mescal, and what's the one role of hers she would like to see "echo in eternity."
#gladiator #gladiator2 #ridleyscott #connienielsen #paulmescal #movie #interview #sydney #paramountpictures #lucilla #rome
http://www.theaureview.com/
http://www.facebook.com/theaureview
http://www.twitter.com/theaureview
SUBSCRIBE TO OUR CHANNEL FOR MORE FILM & MUSIC RELATED CONTENT!
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Short filmTranscript
00:00Peter Gray from the AU Review, hello Connie, lovely to talk to you again, did you have
00:05fun last night?
00:06It was so lovely, it was also really amazing in that huge theatre and to see so many fantastic,
00:12you know, super excited people, it was really a great experience.
00:19It must be kind of surreal in a way to sort of step back into a role after 24 years, like
00:25how did you, like did the, I mean did the legacy of the original film sort of influence
00:30your performance in any way, stepping back into it?
00:33I mean for me Lucila is like somebody I know deeply and intimately and it doesn't matter
00:39how long has passed, you know, I still felt myself just sliding right into her experience
00:46and it was now enriched by, you know, 18 years of things that had happened in between and
00:53you know that was such a great story to bring in just in preparation for the character and
00:59then of course as soon as you step on set with Ridley Scott, it's just this extraordinary
01:06textured, layered, nuanced experience that where you see everyone is on their toes, everyone
01:15is ready to play, you know, it's a great experience.
01:18I was going to ask about, have you seen Ridley Scott as a director, like have you seen him
01:24change in any way to how he directed you in Gladiator 2?
01:27You know, he's a man in a hurry, you know, he has got like 15 more films he wants to
01:32do at least, you know, that he's planning and what's extraordinary is you can really
01:36see how technology has just followed up and just kept on evolving to the point where now
01:46Ridley is finding himself in a place where the technology makes it so available to him
01:53to make these extraordinary visions that he sees inside his mind and where before he needed
01:59more hours, more people, more space, more time to do that, now he can do so in a very
02:05short amount of time and space and so you can just see how he's just thriving with all
02:13the opportunities that that technology gives him.
02:15I mean, I love seeing like, you know, we obviously have like the flooding of the Coliseum and
02:20things like that, like I mean, how much of that was practical compared to special effects?
02:27I mean, I'm not going to give away the tricks, I can just say that Mr Scott knows what he's doing, yeah.
02:36And one of the great lines in the film is obviously, you know, what we do here echoes
02:39in eternity and we obviously see film as being immortal in many ways, like I mean, I hope
02:45film stays immortal, but is there a role for you that you've done that you would like
02:50to be looked at as like, if there's only one role that I could be remembered for, like
02:54what would it be?
02:55Oh, that's not fair.
02:58Obviously, Lucilla is this beautiful role.
03:02I feel kind of blessed that I have had this access to extraordinary, playing extraordinary
03:08women.
03:09During the past two years, I've released a miniseries about the Danish writer Karen
03:16Blixen, and where we really focused not on her romantic life, but her artistic life and
03:23what made it so extraordinary as part of her personal growth, and how it translated itself
03:30into her art.
03:31And that was something that was really dear to my heart, because we don't usually portray
03:37women artists as artists, we portray them as women.
03:41But when we portray men who are artists, we portray them as artists.
03:46And I wanted to kind of even the field on that one with Karen.
03:49And so to me, that particular work is just really close to my heart as well.
03:54Well, I mean, on the mention of that, like, I feel like we're starting to really see women
04:00get the sort of like the roles that they deserve, the stories that should be told.
04:06Is that a massive part of collaborating with Ridley in sort of bringing out the complexities
04:11of Lucilla?
04:12Absolutely, I feel like Ridley kind of creates all of these plot points and sets up incredible
04:17situations within the script, but he sees the script as something that's constantly
04:23evolving while we're shooting.
04:25So he does even on the first one is very much true for the first one and very much true
04:29for the second one as well, where there is just this real elastic, this really strong
04:35give and take.
04:36And so all of the actors we bring to the set every morning, plenty of ideas and almost
04:45heart blood because we really, really come in there and are pushing and advocating for
04:50our characters because those characters don't just exist for the story.
04:55They don't just exist for us as actors.
04:59Those characters exist as mirrors to everyday people who go and watch this film and who
05:07feel seen when we tell a kind of truth to them.
05:12And so I think a lot of people are on the set, we're trying to give that to the audience
05:18as well.
05:19And speaking of on the set, you obviously have a lot of actors in this film and like,
05:24we obviously have adopted Russell Crowe as one of our own, but you have him and then
05:27you have Paul Meskel and I know last night you were like, you couldn't choose between
05:31the two.
05:32There's no way.
05:33But like, how did you sort of see, I guess, because like Paul's kind of in the same realm
05:37as what Russell was back then, like, did you sort of see similarities in their performance
05:41and their personalities?
05:42I mean, obviously, Paul knows that he's playing Maximus's son.
05:48And so at the same time, I also see how Paul was really doing this extraordinary inner
05:54work to just really stay connected to what it is that he brings to the role.
06:02And I think he's just found this really great balance inside of himself where, and that
06:09I think is, like, makes you trust his instinct when you're going on scenes with him because
06:14he's very much playing something out of his own creation.
06:21But with a very humble, obviously, approach that honours all of Russell Crowe's enormous
06:30impact on film the last 30 years, right?
06:34Yeah.
06:35No, I mean, I, yeah, the film was, I was so excited to see where the story would go this
06:39time around and hats off to everybody involved and your performance was incredible.
06:44Thank you so much.
06:45Thank you so much.
06:46I appreciate it.
06:47Thank you so much.