Director Ridley Scott returned to historical epics with a project focused on the most famous of the French soldiers and emperors. Determining who was the right actor to play him was not an easy task, but the choice of Joaquin Phoenix for the star of Napoleon It surprised even the interpreter himself, who felt that he did not fit within the image of Bonaparte that is so deeply rooted in the collective imagination. So, why did the British filmmaker opt for him?
It is worth remembering that this is not the first time that phoenix works with Scott. He played the emperor Lucius Aurelius Commodus in the acclaimed Gladiator (2000), a role that earned him nominations for Best Supporting Actor at the Oscar, the BAFTA and the Screen Actors Guild Awards, among others.
“The truth is that there was a very nostalgic idea in working with Ridley again. I had an amazing experience working with him on Gladiator and he was very young. It was my first big production. “I really wanted to relive that experience or something similar,” Phoenix confessed to empire. “He approached me for other projects in the past. But nothing seemed to be demanding enough for both of them. And I really liked the idea of jumping into something with Ridley that was going to be that [con Napoleón]”.
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According to the person also responsible for Alien: The Eighth Passenger (1979) and blade runner (1982), only two actors came to mind to star in this film. Although he will not reveal who that other option could be, he did reveal that she made him consider to Phoenix as the ideal option: his leading role in joker (2019). This is what the director explained in a recent talk with deadline:
“I was thinking about who could be Napoleon? Joaquín looks like Napoleon. I didn’t tell him that, I didn’t want to make him feel too important. But I was impressed by his outrageous performance in joker”Scott said. “I didn’t like the way the movie tolerated violence, celebrated it. I do not like that. However, [Joaquin Phoenix] He was outstanding, and the fact that he had done it already made him a very good asset to sell the film. With Napoleon, I’m also thinking about commercial. It could only have been two people and I will not mention the other actor because he may get angry.”
Ridley found in exploration Arthur Fleck’s psychological the same thing he wanted for his version of ‘Little Cape’. “I’m seeing Joaquin [en Joker] and I thought ‘This little devil is Napoleon Bonaparte. Looks like him'”the director would say to Empire. And, as he mentions, it also didn’t hurt from a financial aspect that Phoenix received the Oscar for Best Actor for that role, in a film that ended up grossing $1,074 million at the global box office.
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But Phoenix not only had an impact in terms of acting, but also inspired the director to rewrite the script. Scott revealed that Joaquin constantly questioned the character’s motivations and that this led him to make changes to the text he had originally prepared. However, far from being a setback, it seems that the director was pleased with this effort made to establish the intentions of his protagonist.
“With Napoleon, I think we explored in depth and found the character, or at least the closest thing to what maybe he was.. “Joaquin is probably the most special and thoughtful actor I have worked with,” concluded the filmmaker.
Napoleon It is already in theaters in Mexico.