Joaquin Phoenix, plagued by doubt, almost gave up the role of Napoleon just before filming!
Making Napoleon was not easy for British director Ridley Scott! After revealing his difficulties in constructing the character of Joséphine, the Emperor’s great love, the filmmaker spoke of Joaquin Phoenix’s doubts.
In an interview given to Empire magazinethe director confided that the Oscar-winning actor for Joker came to see him two weeks before filming, almost in a panic.
“Joaquin Phoenix came up to me and said, ‘I don’t know what to do.’ I said, ‘Wait, what? Oh, my God, okay, come sit down.’ “Sitting down for 10 days, we spent time going through the script scene by scene. In a way, it’s like we were rehearsing. We covered everything down to the smallest detail.”explained Ridley Scott.
Joaquin Phoenix came to me and said: ‘I don’t know what to do.’ I said, ‘Wait, what?’
Furthermore, it was by scrutinizing Phoenix’s performance in Joker that the director set his sights on him to play the Little Corporal: “I observed Joaquin and I kept repeating to myself: This demon is Napoleon Bonaparte, he looks so much like him”said the filmmaker.
The two artists therefore collaborated enormously to construct the character of Bonaparte. Joaquin Phoenix threw himself body and soul into his interpretation of this major figure in French History.
“With Joaquin, we can rewrite a whole damn script if he doesn’t feel good about it. And that’s more or less what happened with Napoleon. We undid the whole film to help him focus on who Bonaparte was. And that made the whole thing even better and more ambitious.”revealed Ridley Scott.
With Joaquin, we can rewrite a whole damn script if he doesn’t feel good about it. And that’s more or less what happened with Napoleon.
For his part, Joaquin Phoenix had warned that Napoleon would not be treated exhaustively. “If you really want to understand Napoleon, you should do your own research and reading. Because with this film, you will see this experience through Ridley’s eyes. It’s such a complex world”he said.
Indeed, if Ridley Scott staged epic battles, exploring the wars waged by the Emperor, he focuses a lot on the intimate relationship between Joséphine de Beauharnais (Vanessa Kirby) and Bonaparte.
Very ambitious, this biopic is one of the cinema events of the end of 2023. It arrived in theaters on November 22.