The latest addition to Russell Crowe’s long list of accolades is six-feet tall, wrapped in armour, and edible.
On Thursday, the 59-year-old actor shared a photo of a statue crafted from chocolate and modelled on his Gladiator strongman Maximus – the role for which he won his only Oscar.
“Some people get statues made of bronze,” Crowe wrote on X (formerly known as Twitter). “Some in marble. In Malta, they have me made out of … chocolate!!!”
Crowe also advised his followers: “I will be available to eat.”
The sculpture appeared on Saturday at the annual Hamrun chocolate festival held in central Malta, an event which reportedly drew 25,000 visitors last year.
Now in its 13th year, the festival – which also includes tastings and presentations on chocolate history – features an exhibition of large-scale chocolate artworks. Previous subjects have included Elvis, a Minion and Johnnie Walker – the Scottish namesake of the whisky brand.
Crowe’s sculpture, which is lifesize and weighs approximately 150kg, was made by Tiziano Cassar, who also created an outsized Mickey Mouse effigy for the event. According to a post Cassar made on Facebook, one of his friends reached out to Crowe to inform the actor of his delicious double.
“After hours of hard work and planning we enjoyed the night showcasing two chocolate sculptures which in one way or another where [sic] liked by many,” Cassar wrote.
“Overwhelmed by the attendance of people that came to visit my showpieces.”
The long-awaited Gladiator sequel is now in production, with Malta as one of its filming locations. Crowe’s appearance in the country in June for a pit stop on his global tour with his band The Gentlemen Barbers sparked a round of theories that he was somehow involved with the sequel – a suggestion he strenuously denied.
Crowe’s character, Maximus, dies at the end of Ridley Scott’s 2000 original. “[The sequel] has nothing to do with me,” he told journalists at Czech Republic’s Karlovy Vary film festival earlier this year. “In that world, I am dead. Six feet under.”
