How Gladiator Finished Oliver Reed’s Scenes Following His Death

The death of Oliver Reed during the filming of Gladiator led to some groundbreaking techniques used to finish the movie. Decades after its release, Gladiator has stood the test of time as a historical epic, along with being one of director Ridley Scott’s most widely acclaimed movies of his 21st-century work. Russell Crowe rose to mainstream stardom as the Roman general turned gladiator Maximus, whose arrival in the Roman amphitheater places the vicious new Caesar Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix) in trouble, with Maximus determined to avenge his family and Commodus unable to execute Maximus due to his popularity.

Oliver Reed portrayed Proximo in Gladiator, a former gladiator himself, now a wealthy slave owner only interested in winning as much money as he could by taking his gladiators to fight in the Roman Colosseum. Proximo has a pivotal role in the film, assuring Maximus the path to his freedom is to “win the crowd” and ultimately begrudgingly helping Maximus aka “The Spaniard” and his allies in their plot to dethrone Commodus. The 61-year-old Reed tragically passed away during the making of Gladiator, and with a few scenes with Proximo remaining in the film, Ridley Scott utilized a combination of techniques to complete them.

Oliver Reed’s Proximo Character Explained

Proximo’s Character Arc Was Preserved Despite Reed’s Death

Despite being a rather amoral character mostly indifferent to the bloody deaths of his gladiators in the arena, Reed’s Proximo is nevertheless an important supporting character who goes through his own arc alongside Maximus. Proximo being a former gladiator leaves him numb to the barbarism of the Roman Empire, and perfectly willing to monetarily take advantage of it after winning his own freedom. When Maximus turns to him for help in bringing down Commodus, Proximo scoffs at the idea, valuing the wealth the gladiatorial games Commodus has organized brings him and sternly declaring “I’m an entertainer.”

When Proximo finally decides to align with the planned revolt, Maximus commends him with “Proximo, are you in danger of becoming a good man?” with Proximo grunting and walking off before being executed. Though Reed sadly died before the completion of the film, his performance as Proximo was still just as essential as Crowe’s Maximus in making Gladiator the enduring epic that it remains today. In his final performance as Proximo, Reed embodied a cynical man who, though not admitting it to himself, chose to side against everything that brought him wealth to bring down the tyrannical ruler of Rome.

Oliver Reed’s Performance Was Completed With CGI And Body Doubles

For Proximo’s final scenes in Gladiator, director Ridley Scott filmed his interaction with Maximus at night, with the two separated by the bars of a prison cell. Proximo passes Maximus the keys, allowing the former general to initiate his plan against Commodus. For this scene, a body double was used for Proximo, while Reed’s face was digitally applied in post-production by the British VFX house employed for Gladiator, The Mill.

Proximo’s death scene features a shot of Proximo from the front as he delivers his final lines, “Shadows and dust” then cutting to a shot of Proximo’s back as the Roman soldiers surround him and stab him to death. While the shot of the soldiers killing Proximo was accomplished with a body double, Proximo’s final words were actually from an earlier scene in the movie in which Proximo tells Maximus, “We mortals are but shadows and dust.” An outtake from that moment was spliced in, giving Proximo a fitting final line.

Gladiator Isn’t The Only Movie To Use This Technique

The Hunger Games, Star Wars, And Fast And Furious Franchises Have All Faced Similar Situations

While completing the movie after the passing of one of its main actors was a daunting task, Gladiator pulled off this seemingly impossible feat with great success, completing the story and Proximo’s arc in a meaningful way and respecting Oliver Reed’s performance. The techniques to complete the performance were so effective that they inspired other projects that encountered similar tragic obstacles.

Shortly after Gladiator, The Sopranos faced a similar situation when actor Nancy Marchand, who plays Tony’s mother, Livia, died before the third season. Given how important the character was to the series, instead of just beginning the new season with the news that she died, The Sopranos team decided to use Gladiator‘s same techniques of using outtakes and digitally imposing Marchand’s face over a double in order to give Livia and Tony a final scene together.

Some big blockbusters have also used the same techniques employed by Gladiator when they lost a key actor. Philip Seymour Hoffman passed away in 2014 while the final Hunger Games movie, The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 still required his character. Unused footage and body doubles were used to complete these scenes. Likewise, Star Wars: The Rise of Skywalker chose to include Princess Leia despite Carrie Fisher’s death by taking deleted scenes and unused dialogue from previous movies.

Perhaps the most famous instance is Paul Walker in Furious 7. The actor had been the co-lead of the Fast and Furious franchise from the beginning but sadly died in a car accident during the production of the seventh movie. The sequel then turned to Walker’s brothers to be his stand-ins while digitally inserting his face over theirs. This can be most noticeable in the final and touching scene in which Walker’s Brian says goodbye to Vin Diesel’s Dom.

Gladiator

Ridley Scott’s historical epic Gladiator stars Russell Crowe as Maximus, a Roman general who is betrayed after the death of Emperor Marcus Aurelius (Richard Harris). Pressed into slavery, Maximus is forced to fight in the Coliseum for the entertainment of the cruel new emperor, Commodus (Joaquin Phoenix). Rising to the challenge and inspiring the slaves, Maximus fights to undermine Commodus’s unjust rule.

Release Date

May 1, 2000

Runtime

155 minutes