The upcoming historical drama Nuremberg, starring Russell Crowe, Michael Shannon, and Rami Malek, is set to hit theaters in November. Ahead of its release, Crowe shared that filming one of the movie’s centerpiece courtroom sequences became one of the toughest yet most rewarding moments of his career.

Crowe takes on the role of Adolf Hitler’s right-hand man Hermann Göring, while Shannon plays Robert H. Jackson, the U.S. prosecutor who helped bring Nazi war criminals to justice during the Nuremberg Trials.

Originally, the intense courtroom exchange between the two was scheduled to be filmed across four days. But Crowe and Shannon pushed for a different approach—shooting the entire 17-page scene in a single day.

“It was probably one of the most challenging, thrilling, and resonant days I’ve ever spent on a film set,” Crowe told Deadline. “Michael and I felt the scene played like a duel—concepts and philosophies being used as weapons. Stopping midway just didn’t make sense.”

Director James Vanderbilt was hesitant at first, joking that such a long shoot in one day was “not humanly possible.” Crowe responded with a quip: “Michael and I are from Krypton.”

Shannon later explained that the pair deliberately avoided rehearsing before cameras rolled. “The thing about a scene like that is we’re both trying to catch each other off guard,” he said. “There’s an advantage in not knowing exactly what the other is going to do—it forces you to live and die in the moment.”

With its heavyweight cast and bold performances, Nuremberg is shaping up to be one of this year’s most anticipated historical dramas.