Russell Crowe

like artisan methods that have been used for a long, long time.

And pretty much most of the places you go, that food hasn't necessarily been affected in the same way as it might in a more westernized country like America, like Australia.

You know, we borrow your food production methods.

So we've got, you know, corn syrup up the Jaxi and everything now, you know, as well.

Yeah.

But, yeah, so I had three months to get ready.

And that's, you know, I don't think when we started, I don't think I was ready.

But by the time we were halfway through the film and my shirt's coming off and all that sort of stuff, I'd had enough time and enough focus on it to get it to a certain place.

Yeah, constantly.

You know, because it was, yeah, I mean...

Training in that, you know, at the top step of the third tier of the Coliseum, there's a room that's got gym gear in it.

Or you're in the middle of the desert and there's an extra tent and that tent is a gymnasium, you know.

And, you know, I had to sort of...

share the space there's a whole bunch of gladiators in gladiators there's a whole bunch of guys desperate to work out and everything so i just let everybody use the space as well just on the proviso that if i'm coming in and i've got 15 minutes between things and i need to be on the bench just get off the fucking bench right and everyone's like yeah call me you know so it was it was quite a you know a good collaboration actually with all those those guys wow that so did had you ever wield a sword before did you have to learn how to do all those moves

Yeah, I took it upon myself, because I didn't get to go to drama school.

I just started working.

I was working, as I said, in clubs and stuff like that.

And when I started moving into doing more acting stuff,

I was born in New Zealand.

I moved to Australia when I was four.