Random Movie Trivia - Gladiator

Here is the next edition in our weekly Random Movie Trivia post.  Enjoy:

Gladiator

• Just like today's athletes, ancient Roman gladiators used to endorse products while fighting and this was going to be included in the script but was deemed too unbelievable and was cut.
• Lou Ferrigno (aka the original Hulk) was originally cast as Tigris of Gaul (that big-ass gladiator that Maximus fights while surrounded by tigers) but Sven-Ole Thorsen lobbied hard for the part and got it.
• The guy who played Proximo, Oliver Reed, suffered a fatal heart attack during filming and they had to CGI his face onto another actor for the scenes they had not finished with his character.  His character was supposed to survive in the original script but was killed due to Reed's death.
• The wounds on Russell Crowe's face in the opening battle are real after his horse was startled and backed him into a tree.  You can clearly see stitches on his face when he is talking with Commodus after the fight.  Crowe also broke bones in his foot and hip as well as injuring both biceps tendons at some point during filming.
• Mel Gibson was offered the role of Maximus but turned it down because at 43, he felt he was too old for the part.  Also considered for the role was Antonio Banderas.
• Jennifer Lopez auditioned for the part of Lucilla.  Thankfully they chose Connie Nielsen because J-Lo might be one of the worst actresses to ever walk the earth (if you can't tell, I do not like her).
• The script called for a scene where Maximus fights a rhinoceros, but because it was too hard to train a rhino and the CGI would have been too expensive, the scene was unfortunately cut.
• Russell Crowe frequently complained about the dialogue of the script and re-wrote parts of it to fit his needs.  If he didn't get his way, he would storm off set and at one point even told the writer, "Your lines are garbage but I'm the greatest actor in the world and I can make even garbage sound good".
• According to history, Marcus Aurelius died of the plague (not murdered by his son) and Commodus wasn't killed by a gladiator in the Coliseum but was actually a beloved ruler (however, he was assassinated by an athlete later in his reign).
• In the original script, the character Maximus was named Narcissus, which was the real name of Commodus's real assassin.
• The real Commodus did fight in the Coliseum and actually would stab his opponent's in the back before fights just like he did with Maximus in the movie.
• During filming, Russell Crowe and Richard Harris (Marcus Aurelius) became friends, however, the same cannot be said about Crowe and Oliver Reed (Proximo).  At one point, Reed even challenged Crowe to a fight.

"This guy almost played the part of Maximus.  Well, at least he is actually a Spaniard unlike Russell Crowe."