Ridley Scott was illuminated to cast Joaquin Phoenix in Napoleon after seeing him in Joker. The Gladiator director reunited with Commodus in the film about the historical French leader.
“I’m staring at Joaquin and saying, ‘This little demon is Napoleon Bonaparte.’ He looks like him,” Scott told Empire Magazine.
Scott says that he compares Napoleon with “Alexander The Great. Adolf Hitler. Stalin.”
“Listen, he’s got a lot of bad shit under his belt. At the same time, he was remarkable with his courage, and in his can-do, and in his dominance. He was extraordinary,” the filmmaker added.
Phoenix told the outlet “There was just a very nostalgic idea of working with Ridley again” after having “an incredible experience” filming Gladiator.
“I was so young. It was my first big production. I really yearned for that experience again, or something similar,” Phoenix added.
The Beau is Afraid actor said that Scott had approached him with other projects throughout the years “but nothing that felt like it would be as demanding for both of us. And so I really liked the idea of jumping into something with Ridley that was going to be that.”
Scott mentioned that just two weeks before filming was set to start, Phoenix approached him and told him, “I don’t know what to do.”
The director continued, “Oh God, I said, ‘Come in, sit down.’ We sat for ten days, all day, talking scene by scene. In a sense, we rehearsed. Absolutely detail by detail.”
Napoleon’s logline says the film “is an original and personal look at Napoleon’s origins and his swift, ruthless climb to emperor, viewed through the prism of his addictive and often volatile relationship with his wife and one true love, Josephine. The film captures Napoleon’s famous battles, relentless ambition, and astounding strategic mind as an extraordinary military leader and war visionary.
