Interview: Fred Hechinger on Working with Ridley Scott and Embracing Villainy in ‘Gladiator II’ [VIDEO]

“It’s been a wild trip so far,” remarks Fred Hechinger on the firestorm of a year he’s having with Gladiator II. His rapid ascent on the big screen, from an early supporting role in Bo Burnham’s magnificent coming-of-age odyssey Eighth Grade, has brought him to this point, playing sibling emperor Caracalla in Ridley Scott’s long-awaited and triumphant spectacle of a sequel to his original 2000 epic.

Set some two decades after the first Gladiator, Gladiator II centers around Paul Mescal’s Lucius Verus, the son of Russell Crowe’s Maximus, who is thrust upon a similar journey to his father after his wife is murdered and he is forced to participate in the gladiatorial games in his quest for revenge. The unstable Caracalla is brother and co-Emperor to Joseph Quinn’s malevolent Geta, both based on real historical figures. They rule over Rome and the arena with a psychotic and brutal iron fist. Hechinger, who we sat down to talk about the film with, found himself drawn to Caracalla’s complexity and cognitive decay. “No person I’ve ever met is strictly one thing,” said Hechinger about Caracalla’s villainy and grotesque dynamic not only opposite his brother, but also the emperor’s pet monkey. Hechinger crafts a formidable turn from “opening up the aperture and letting everything in.”

“Ridley directs through environment,” Hechinger explained. “He builds Rome around you, and then trusts every actor to become their character.” It was a very enlightening conversation about the actor’s process and commitment to understanding his character, supplemented by his own work and ambitions as a storyteller and director. Working under Scott, and seeing how energetic and enlivened the legendary filmmaker remains even well into his 80s, was revelatory for him. “This life brings more life” was Hechinger’s biggest takeaway from his experience making Gladiator II.

Our full 20-minute conversation with Fred Hechinger can be found below, where we also talk about his upcoming turn as The Chameleon in Kraven the Hunter, as well as an interview he conducted with Andrew Garfield as a child that has now come full circle with the actor joining the Spider-Man universe.

Gladiator II arrives in theaters on Friday.