Upon listening to his episode on the podcast in question, John Mathieson noticed the severe truncation of the talk he’d given to Nigel Levy. Gladiator II’s DP even noted that he could tell that it felt like quotes were rearranged and deleted that would have filled out the sentiment he’d expressed above.

It appears Ridley Scott may be on the, uh, outs with his longtime DP John Mathieson. The two collaborated on six films, including "Gladiator," "Matchstick Men," "Kingdom of Heaven," and most recently "Gladiator II,

The cinematographer for Gladiator 2 branded its director Ridley Scott "impatient" in a recent interview. John Mathieson, who worked with the renowned British director on both 2000's Gladiator and its 2024 sequel,

Gladiator II’s cinematographer has accused Sir Ridley Scott of lazy filmmaking. John Mathieson, the award-winning director’s long-time cinematographer, accused Sir Ridley’s method of becoming “rushed”.

John Mathieson gave a reflective interview speaking of how the director had 'changed' and was now 'quite impatient' on set adding this had had a negative impact on the finished product.