the script wasn't a complete done deal. We actually started shooting with about 32 pages and went through them in the first couple of weeks." Of the writing and filming process, Crowe added, "Possibly, a lot of the stuff that I have to deal with now in terms of my 'volatility' has to do with that experience. Here was a situation where we got to Morocco with a crew of 200 and a cast of a 100 or whatever, and I didn't have anything to learn. I actually didn't know what the scenes were gonna be. We had, I think, one American writer working on it, one English writer working on it, and of course a group of producers who were also adding their ideas, and then Ridley himself; and then, on the occasion where Ridley would say, 'Look, this is the structure for it– what are you gonna say in that?' So then I'd be doing my own stuff, as well. And this is how things like, 'Strength and honor,' came up. This is how things like, 'At my signal, unleash hell,' came up. The name Maximus Decimus Meridius, it just flowed well." Maximus' habit of rubbing soil before each fight references the attachment and affection to his former life as a farmer. In a conversation with Marcus Aurelius, Maximus says the fecund soil of his farm is "black like my wife's hair". Crowe wrote the speech himself, drawing on his feelings of homesickness for his own farm. Injuries Crowe reportedly sustained injuries during principal photography. Detailing the impact filming had on his body during his appearance on Inside the Actor's Studio, Crowe described that there was a "lot of blood, lot of blood, lot of grazes, you know, I mean, I've still got, a lot of little scar[s] here and one under here on this elbow, a discoloration of the skin that is directly to Gladiator". During filming on the sequence where Maximus fights Tigris of Gaul in the arena with tigers, Crowe narrowly escaped from being clawed by a tiger. Post-production British post-production company The Mill was responsible for much of the computer-generated imagery effects that were added after filming. The company was responsible for such tricks as compositing real tigers filmed on bluescreen into the fight sequences, and adding smoke trails and extending the flight paths of the opening scene's salvo of flaming arrows to get