"Gladiator" director Ridley Scott recently told The New York Times (via Entertainment Weekly) that Russell Crowe told Joaquin Phoenix he was being "terribly unprofessional" on set when Phoenix was getting cold feet and had to be convinced to stay on the movie.

Ahead of the film's sequel, "Gladiator II," Scott told the New York Times that Phoenix, who played the villainous emperor Commodus, had a moment where he said, "I can't do it." "What?'" Scott recalled as his reaction.

Joaquin Phoenix made his breakout performance in 2000’s Gladiator, which earned him his first Academy Award nomination for Best Supporting Actor. Nearly 25 years later, director Ridley Scott revealed that Phoenix nearly dropped out of the role of Commodus at the last minute,

Gladiator' was a "baptism of fire for both of us in the beginning," Ridley Scott said of how he and Joaquin Phoenix approached making the 2000 film

The Joker star was locked in to play the lead role in Todd Haynes’ untitled gay romance flick but abruptly quit just five days before cameras were to start rolling, per Variety. His decision to exit the film, which reportedly featured explicit sex scenes, left production in “peril,” insiders told the outlet.

Director Ridley Scott reveals Joaquin Phoenix’s cold feet on Gladiator; Russell Crowe calls it ‘unprofessional

Joaquin Phoenix recently made headlines for dropping out of a planned gay romance film with director Todd Haynes at the last minute, but the actor's previous collaborators say that Phoenix has occasionally been finicky even on movies he did complete.