Russell Crowe is having fun with his role in the upcoming Highlander reboot, and it sounds like he’s finally getting to fulfill an acting choice Ridley Scott once shut down.
In a new interview with 60 Minutes Australia, Crowe revealed that playing Ramirez in Highlander will allow him to use a Spanish accent, something Scott famously refused to let him do while filming Gladiator.
Crowe Finally Gets His “Spaniard” Accent
Crowe joked about the classic 1986 film and Sean Connery’s original performance as Ramirez, a character who was supposedly Egyptian and Spanish, yet spoke with Connery’s unmistakable Scottish accent.
“The character’s name is Ramirez and Sean played the character brilliantly, obviously, as a Scotsman. But they explain the reason that Ramirez, the Spaniard, had a Scottish accent in the movie by saying that earlier he came from Egypt!” he told 60 Minutes Australia.
Connery was famously unbothered by accents in his films, whether he was playing a Russian submarine commander, an Irish cop, or a Moroccan rebel — he always sounded like Sean Connery.
Crowe then recalled asking Scott during early Gladiator rehearsals if he could speak like “Antonio Banderas with slightly better elocution,” since Maximus was a Spaniard.
Ridley Scott’s response? “There’s no f***ing way that you’re doing that.”
Crowe said they ultimately settled on what he calls a “Royal Shakespeare Company two pints after lunch” accent.
Stahelski Gives Him the Green Light
Crowe revealed he told this story to Highlander director Chad Stahelski — who embraced the idea.
“’If you bring me Spanish, I will take Spanish.’ So I’m gonna do Ramirez as a Spaniard. We shall see,” said the actor.
That means this reboot may finally answer the decades-long fan question of why the “Spaniard” sounded like Sean Connery doing… Sean Connery.
The Highlander Reboot
Crowe stars as Ramirez opposite Henry Cavill as Connor MacLeod.
The cast also includes Dave Bautista as Kurgan, Karen Gillan, Marisa Abela, Jeremy Irons, Djimon Hounsou, Max Zhang, and WWE’s Drew McIntyre. Production has been delayed until early 2026 as Cavill recovers from an ankle injury.
No release date has been set.
