Gladiator II’s Fred Hechinger Enters His Imperial Phase

“I swear to you, I’m not making this up,” Fred Hechinger tells me. “Sir Ridley Scott is a fan of Beavis and Butt-Head.”

In Gladiator II, the young actor plays the mad, syphilitic emperor Caracalla, who rules a decaying Roman Empire alongside his twin brother, Geta (Joseph Quinn). The pair are orange-haired, caked in white face paint, and coated in gold—as goofy as they are terrifying. To inspire Hechinger, director Ridley Scott told him to think of Sid Vicious and Johnny Rotten, Ed…