As film shooting for a Gladiator sequel is expected to start this summer, Daniel Ellul goes behind the scenes of the original with some of the thousands of supporting artists.

Duncan Caruana did not even know who Russell Crowe was when they worked together on Gladiator. He was only aware that he “seemed important”.

The fresh-out-of-school extra was fascinated by the attention lavished on the lead actor on set in Malta in the heat of summer 1999.

“One fascinating thing was that there was this guy who would run to Russell Crowe between scenes to give him a cigarette,” Caruana recalls. 

“He kept it lit for him in his mouth and would give it to him so he could smoke.” 

Another man carried a wheelbarrow full of weights. Between shots, he would approach Crowe, who would work on his biceps so that he “looked pumped on camera”. 

Caruana was one of the estimated 7,000 extras cast for Ridley Scott’s big-budget historical epic. 

Crowe would go on to win an Oscar for his portrayal of Roman general-turned-gladiator Maximus Decimus Meridius. 

Caruana’s role as one of many soldiers hired to provide background might not have been as glamorous, but it did give him some insight into the industry – and its hierarchy.  

One day, he had been on set for hours when his grumbling belly led him towards a table of promised refreshments. 

Spotting some fruit, he began taking his pick, only to be stopped in his tracks by a crew member, with the words: “Oy! That’s Russell Crowe’s breakfast!”

“I was terribly embarrassed,” he says. 

Caruana eventually ate later in the day but with less glamour as his fellow supporting artists piled on to each other to get their meal. 

“Had they wanted to film a mob scene, us getting our food would have been an ideal time to shoot.”

Near-death experience

Caruana was speaking to Times of Malta at the Valletta ditch, which was transformed into Rome’s outer walls during a scene in which Maximus attempts to escape from the city. 

In the scene, his loyal servant Cicero is killed by being hung with a rope and then shot with arrows to the chest.  

It was Caruana’s first night of filming and he remembers a shocking incident. 

Actor Tommy Flanagan, who played Cicero, was suspended from a tree wearing a foam piece embedded with arrows. The foam started to slide up and was choking him. 

“I was looking at him, foaming at the mouth, choking for real,” he says. “Now that’s some good acting, I thought to myself, thinking he was just rehearsing.” 

Suddenly the crew came running up with a ladder to save him, Caruana says. He claims the Scottish actor was so shocked that he refused to do the scene and so a dummy was used instead.

After two weeks of blockbuster adventure on the set, Caruana would have to wait to see the film to understand what he had been involved in. But unfortunately, he has been left with only his memories. 

He says he has been unable to spot himself in the film’s final cut.

“I’ve watched it many times, even in slow motion but I never saw myself,” he says.

Coryse Borg was one level up on the hierarchy of supporting artists. She can clearly spot herself when she watches the film, sharing a screen grab of the moment she appears in the film. 

Borg was what is known as a featured extra – a background performer who stands out from the crowd and is potentially recognisable in the final cut of the film. 

She can be seen standing behind Crowe in a scene when Maximus and other gladiators enter Rome. 

Borg was cast in the role following a short audition and got to meet Crowe, who was “very, very nice”. 

“My friend was involved in casting and she called me up,” recalls the film fanatic, who says she took the opportunity “by the horns” to be on the set of a Hollywood blockbuster. 

As a featured extra she enjoyed some perks: “We had our own tent, got sunblock because it was hot, and had make-up.”

Borg would go on to work in other productions, acting in the mini-series Helen of Troy, the Italian show Presagi and the 2018 TV film Death of the Nephlim. 

Meanwhile, Jackie Grima was the make-up artist to the extras, and Gladiator marked the beginning of her career. 

“Seeing the gladiator arena, the massive set was jaw-dropping,” she says, while on location for another feature film.  

Before Gladiator, Grima worked on local television while running her beauty salon. Compared to that, the set of Gladiator was another world, she says.

On set, Vella’s day would start and 4.30am with 500 extras to deal with through before filming began. 

“Our job was to make sure they (the extras) looked the part,” she says. That meant sometimes making extras look dirty and focusing on facial hair. 

“We had to make sure that beards were from the period,” she says, while also having to ensure those playing roles as senators were shaved twice a day to look immaculate. 

“Those who had a moustache all their life were paid to have it shaved,” she recalls.

She too recalls the special treatment for Crowe. He had a fondness for Fosters beer, which was not available in Malta at the time, so they used to import it by air freight especially for him, she says.

After their experiences, would the extras repeat the experience if they are needed again?

For Borg, who will “never forget”, her experience, it’s an easy yes. “If Ridley Scott has a part for me on Gladiator 2, I’m in.”

Caruana on the other hand is not as keen for a sequel to his experience of suffering in the summer heat, only to fail to make the final cut.

“The next Gladiator will also be filmed in summer... so I think not,” he says.