Denzel Washington’s character in Gladiator II is “very close to Trump”, according to director Ridley Scott.

Yeah, you read that right. Washington plays real-life historical figure Macrinus, a former Roman emperor, in the sequel to the classic 2000 movie Gladiator. But what makes him comparable to the president-elect Donald Trump?

Allow Scott to explain.

“[Macrinus] was a prisoner of war — probably at a North African state — and actually was taken to Rome probably as a gladiator. Survived. Got free. Got into the business of maybe making wine and bread. He evolved into a very rich merchant selling shit to the Roman armies — food, oil, wine, cloth, weapons, everything,” the 86-year-old director told The Hollywood Reporter.

“He maybe had a million men spread around Europe. So he was a billionaire at the time, so why wouldn’t he [have ambitions toward the throne]? ‘Why not me?’ He’s also a gangster — very close to Trump. A clever gangster. He creates chaos and from chaos he can evolve,” he added.

Indeed, the real-life Macrinus was a prominent figure in his time.

More About Denzel Washington’s Gladiator II Character Macrinus

Macrinus was the emperor of Rome from April 217 to June 218 AD. He reigned jointly with his young son Diadumenianus. They were of Berber origin, an ethnic group that was descended from the Stone Age tribes of North Africa. They pre-dated the arrival of Arabs in that region, and spoke Afro-Asiatic languages like Amazigh, which is related to ancient Egyptian.

He was the first Roman emperor who wasn’t from the senatorial class. He never got to visit Rome during his reign, though, which was another first.

Before he became the emperor of Rome, Macrinus was a praetorian prefect under Emperor Caracalla, who is played by Fred Hechinger in Gladiator II.

But things between Macrinus and Caracalla got a little sticky later on, when Macrinus conspired against him and carried out a murder plot. Classic Roman empire stuff, ya know? Macrinus then took over as emperor after Caracalla’s death.

Also Read: Dylan Sprouse Tells Us His Roman Empire

So he was a schemer, as well. Even Washington himself has explained how craftilt he played Macrinus.

“He’s trying to use everybody. He’d use his mother, he’d use his own children; he’s already used up his soul, so he didn’t have any left. He’s in bed with the devil,” he told THR.

While the original Gladiator takes place from 180 to 192 AD, Gladiator II picks up multiple years after Gladiator ends.

Scott described the character of Macrinus as a “wealthy” and “beautiful” man.

“Denzel is an arms dealer who supplies food for the armies in Europe, supplies wine and oil, makes steel, makes spears, weapons, cannons, and catapults. So he is a very wealthy man. Instead of having a stable of racehorses, he has a stable of gladiators,” Scott told Vanity Fair . “He’s beautiful. He drives a golden Ferrari. I got him a gold-plated chariot.”

Scott also recently said that original Gladiator star Russell Crowe — who played Maximus, the father of Paul Mescal’s Gladiator II character Lucius — really wanted to be a part of the sequel, but it just never worked out.

“Russell and I had a go at it around 18 years ago,” Scott told People. “I had Nick Cave writing the script and I kept saying [to Crowe], ‘But you’re dead.’ And he said, ‘I know I’m dead. And I want to come back from the dead.’”

Scott had considered trying a “portal to bring him back from the dead” as one way to get Crowe back in the sequel.

“The only way of doing it was to go to another battle and through a dying warrior, he comes back into the spirit of the warrior,” Scott said. “So that’s his portal.”

But Crowe didn’t like the idea, because another actor would have to play the dying warrior who serves as the conduit for Maximus.

“He said, ‘So that’s no f—ing good, is it?’” Scott remembers Crowe reacting. “It didn’t really work.”

Gladiator II is now playing in theaters.

Main Image: (L) Denzel Washington as Macrinus in Gladiator II, Paramount Pictures, (R) Donald Trump, Donald Trump speaking at CPAC in Washington D.C. on February 10, 2011, Gage Skidmore, Creative Commons Attribution-Share Alike 3.0