Joaquin Phoenix made his breakout performance in 2000’s Gladiator, which earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Nearly 25 years later, director Ridley Scott revealed that Phoenix nearly dropped out of the role of Commodus at the last minute,

Joaquin Phoenix tried quitting “Gladiator” mid-shoot before being persuaded to stay by Ridley Scott, the director said in an interview published Thursday. Ahead of the film’s sequel, “Gladiator II,” Scott told the New York Times that Phoenix ...

Phoenix made headlines over the summer after backing out of a gay romance flick directed by Todd Haynes just five days before filming began.

"He was in his prince’s outfit saying, 'I can’t do it,'" the director remembers. Joaquin Phoenix recently made headlines for dropping out of a planned gay romance film with director Todd Haynes at the last minute, but the actor's previous collaborators ...

Gladiator' was a "baptism of fire for both of us in the beginning," Ridley Scott said of how he and Joaquin Phoenix approached making the 2000 film According to director Ridley Scott, Joaquin Phoenix nearly dropped out of 2000's Gladiator.