26 years ago today. Ridley Scott released Gladiator and gave cinema one of the most iconic character introductions ever put on screen. What most people do not know is how close Joaquin Phoenix came to walking away from it entirely. He felt so out of his depth playing Commodus that he offered to pay the producers back for his hotel and travel costs if they would just let him leave. He stayed. And the performance he delivered earned him his first Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor. The scr