Denzel Washington on ‘Gladiator II’: ‘This is the biggest film I’ve been on, it’s Cecil B. DeMille on steroids’ (Exclusive)

Denzel Washington has appeared in countless major films during his career, including epics like “Glory,” “Malcolm X,” and “American Gangster.” But not even the two-time Oscar winner had experienced a set like what director Ridley Scott and production designer Arthur Max built for “Gladiator II.”

“This is the biggest film I’ve been on,” Washington said in a new featurette for “Gladiator II” that Gold Derby can exclusively reveal above. “It’s Cecil B. DeMille on steroids.”

Directed by Scott, “Gladiator II” is more than 20 years in the making: the filmmaker started developing the sequel just after the 2000 original film won Best Picture. Released last week, “Gliadator II” is already a hit – it topped $225 million at the global box office through Sunday – and is widely expected to compete for several Oscar nominations next year, including Best Picture, Best Director for Scott (who has rather infamously never won an Oscar despite his exemplary track record), and Best Production Design for Max. If Max is nominated for building the large-scale sets and recreating ancient Rome for the film, it would be his fifth nomination overall and second in a row; he was also a nominee this year for Scott’s 2023 epic “Napoleon.”

When Gold Derby spoke to Max earlier this month about the film, he said he felt an initial “fear” about returning to the Colosseum for “Gladiator II.” 

“It was intimidation about the concept of doing it again, because how do you improve on it? It’s daunting because if it was so good the first time around, you don’t want to paint a mustache on the Mona Lisa,” Max said. “You don’t want to ruin what is quite an extraordinary, phenomenal film, and the magic of it. You feel a great sense of responsibility to the people who loved it, but you also want to do your best to make the sequel work in its own right.”

Watch how Max pulled off the task of making “Gladiator II” its own mass-scale film in the exclusive featurette above. “Gladiator II” is out in theaters now.