{"id":1177091,"date":"2024-11-22T12:02:31","date_gmt":"2024-11-22T20:02:31","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/?p=1177091"},"modified":"2024-11-22T13:35:21","modified_gmt":"2024-11-22T21:35:21","slug":"denzel-washington-gladiator-ii-macrinus-trump","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/denzel-washington-gladiator-ii-macrinus-trump\/","title":{"rendered":"Denzel Washington’s Gladiator II Character Is A Lot Like Trump, Ridley Scott Says"},"content":{"rendered":"

Denzel Washington’s character in Gladiator II<\/em> is “very close to Trump”, according to director Ridley Scott.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yeah, you read that right. Washington plays real-life historical figure Macrinus, a former Roman emperor, in the sequel to the classic 2000 movie Gladiator<\/em>. But what makes him comparable to the president-elect Donald Trump?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Allow Scott to explain.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201c[Macrinus] was a prisoner of war \u2014 probably at a North African state \u2014 and actually was taken to Rome probably as a gladiator. Survived. Got free. Got into the business of maybe making wine and bread. He evolved into a very rich merchant selling shit to the Roman armies \u2014 food, oil, wine, cloth, weapons, everything,” the 86-year-old director told The Hollywood Reporter<\/em><\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“He maybe had a million men spread around Europe. So he was a\u00a0billionaire<\/em>\u00a0at the time, so why wouldn\u2019t he [have ambitions toward the throne]? \u2018Why not me?\u2019 He\u2019s also a gangster \u2014 very close to Trump. A clever gangster. He creates chaos and from chaos he can evolve,” he added.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Indeed, the real-life Macrinus was a prominent figure in his time.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

More About Denzel Washington’s Gladiator II Character Macrinus<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Macrinus was the emperor of Rome<\/a> from April 217 to June 218 AD. He reigned jointly with his young son Diadumenianus. They were of Berber origin, an ethnic group that was descended from the Stone Age tribes of North Africa. They pre-dated the arrival of Arabs in that region, and spoke Afro-Asiatic languages like Amazigh, which is related to ancient Egyptian.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He was the first Roman emperor who wasn\u2019t from the senatorial class. He never got to visit Rome during his reign, though, which was another first.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Before he became the emperor of Rome, Macrinus was a praetorian prefect under Emperor Caracalla, who is played by Fred Hechinger in\u00a0Gladiator II<\/em>. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

But things between Macrinus and Caracalla got a little sticky later on, when Macrinus conspired against him and carried out a murder plot. Classic Roman empire stuff, ya know? Macrinus then took over as emperor after Caracalla\u2019s death.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Also Read:<\/strong> Dylan Sprouse Tells Us His Roman Empire<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

So he was a schemer, as well. Even Washington himself has explained how craftilt he played Macrinus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe\u2019s trying to use everybody. He\u2019d use his mother, he\u2019d use his own children; he\u2019s already used up his soul, so he didn\u2019t have any left. He\u2019s in bed with the devil,\u201d\u00a0he told THR.<\/em><\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

While the original\u00a0Gladiator\u00a0<\/em>takes place from 180 to 192 AD,\u00a0Gladiator II<\/em>\u00a0picks up multiple years after\u00a0Gladiator\u00a0<\/em>ends. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott described the character of Macrinus as a “wealthy” and “beautiful” man.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cDenzel is an arms dealer who supplies food for the armies in Europe, supplies wine and oil, makes steel, makes spears, weapons, cannons, and catapults. So he is a very wealthy man. Instead of having a stable of racehorses, he has a stable of gladiators,” Scott told Vanity Fair<\/a><\/em> . “He\u2019s beautiful. He drives a golden Ferrari. I got him a gold-plated chariot.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott also recently said<\/a> that original Gladiator<\/em> star Russell Crowe \u2014\u00a0who played Maximus, the father of Paul Mescal’s Gladiator II<\/em> character Lucius \u2014 really wanted to be a part of the sequel, but it just never worked out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cRussell and I had a go at it around 18 years ago,\u201d Scott told\u00a0People<\/a><\/em>. \u201cI had Nick Cave writing the script and I kept saying [to Crowe], \u2018But you\u2019re dead.\u2019 And he said, \u2018I know I\u2019m dead. And I want to come back from the dead.’\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Scott had considered trying a \u201cportal to bring him back from the dead\u201d as one way to get Crowe back in the sequel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cThe only way of doing it was to go to another battle and through a dying warrior, he comes back into the spirit of the warrior,\u201d Scott said. \u201cSo that\u2019s his portal.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But Crowe didn\u2019t like the idea, because another actor would have to play the dying warrior who serves as the conduit for Maximus.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u201cHe said, \u2018So that\u2019s no f\u2014ing good, is it?’\u201d Scott remembers Crowe reacting. \u201cIt didn\u2019t really work.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Gladiator II<\/em> is now playing in theaters. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Main Image: (L) Denzel Washington as Macrinus in Gladiator II, Paramount Pictures, (R) Donald Trump, Donald Trump speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011, Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0<\/em><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"Denzel Washington’s character in Gladiator II is “very close to Trump”, according to director Ridley Scott. Yeah, you read that […]","protected":false},"author":1734,"featured_media":1177092,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"rank_math_lock_modified_date":false,"disable_comments":false,"tpd_featured_posts_arr":"","hide_featured_img_single_post":false,"msn_featured_video":[],"_msn_custom_title":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[11],"tags":[],"feeds":[],"class_list":["post-1177091","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-news"],"primary_category":{"term_id":11,"name":"Movie News","slug":"news","taxonomy":"category","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/category\/news\/"},"thumbnail":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=241,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/macrinus-trump.jpg","fimg_url_thumb":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=241,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/macrinus-trump.jpg","featured_img_medium":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=788,height=444,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/macrinus-trump.jpg","author_name":"Margeaux Sippell","author_avatar":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=100,height=100,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2021\/02\/image_6487327.jpg","author_link":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/author\/margeaux-sippell\/","post_categories":["Movie News"],"parsely":{"version":"1.1.0","meta":{"@context":"https:\/\/schema.org","@type":"NewsArticle","headline":"Denzel Washington’s Gladiator II Character Is A Lot Like Trump, Ridley Scott Says","url":"http:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/denzel-washington-gladiator-ii-macrinus-trump\/","mainEntityOfPage":{"@type":"WebPage","@id":"http:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/denzel-washington-gladiator-ii-macrinus-trump\/"},"thumbnailUrl":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=428,height=241,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/macrinus-trump.jpg","image":{"@type":"ImageObject","url":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/cdn-cgi\/image\/width=1024,height=576,fit=crop,quality=80,format=auto,onerror=redirect,metadata=none\/wp-content\/uploads\/2024\/11\/macrinus-trump.jpg"},"articleSection":"Movie News","author":[{"@type":"Person","name":"Margeaux Sippell"}],"creator":["Margeaux Sippell"],"publisher":{"@type":"Organization","name":"MovieMaker Magazine","logo":"https:\/\/www.moviemaker.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2023\/01\/mm_site_logo-2.svg"},"keywords":[],"dateCreated":"2024-11-22T20:02:31Z","datePublished":"2024-11-22T20:02:31Z","dateModified":"2024-11-22T21:35:21Z"},"rendered":"