Denzel Washington says Ridley Scott ‘built Rome’ for ‘Gladiator 2’

Denzel Washington has no trouble stepping into the sandals of his character Macrinus in Ridley Scott’s Gladiator II.

“All we had to do was put the clothes on and start talking,” Washington said at a Los Angeles screening of Gladiator II.

“I’m serious. What Ridley did, which was great, is he built Rome… When we would walk around, you were in Rome [with] 10,000 extras and horses. I mean, it was make-believe, it was play,” he explained.

“Just put the gear on, put the dress on and go. That’s the way I looked at it,” the Oscar-winning actor added.

The Bone Collector actor explained his slave turned slave owner character as a “product of his environment,” noting that he’s “trying to use everybody. He used his mother, he used his own children. He’d already used up his soul, so he didn’t have any left. But he’s in bed with the devil.”

In Gladiator II, Washington plays a trader and arms dealer. The movie stars Paul Mescal as gladiator Lucius Verus, the son of Russell Crowe’s character Maximus from the original movie. The movie also stars Connie Nielsen, Fred Hechinger and Joseph Quinn.