Ridley Scott Decided to Cast Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon After Seeing ‘Joker’: ‘This Little Demon Is Napoleon Bonaparte’

“Napoleon,” Ridley Scott’s historical epic about the French military leader, is nearly here (it’ll debut in theaters on Thanksgiving and on Apple TV+ at a later date). And in a new interview with Empire Magazine, Scott is revealing what made him think of Joaquin Phoenix when it came to the title role. As it turns out, while Scott and Phoenix previously worked together on 2000’s Oscar-winning “Gladiator,” the idea to cast Phoenix as Napoleon came to Scott while he was watching a different film: “Joker.”

“I’m staring at Joaquin and saying, ‘This little demon is Napoleon Bonaparte.’ He looks like him,” Scott told Empire.

Elsewhere in the chat with Empire, Scott compared Napoleon to other historical figures while noting that Bonaparte was “extraordinary.”

“I compare him with Alexander The Great. Adolf Hitler. Stalin. Listen, he’s got a lot of bad s–t under his belt,” he said. “At the same time, he was remarkable with his courage, and in his can-do and in his dominance. He was extraordinary.”

Phoenix, who starred in Ari Aster’s nightmarish drama “Beau Is Afraid” earlier this year, told the magazine: “Certainly speaking for myself, I actively wanted to avoid the conventions of the biopic.”

In avoiding the conventions of the biopic, Scott and Phoenix chose to focus on Napoleon’s relationship with Joséphine de Beauharnais, played by “Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One” star Vanessa Kirby after Jodie Comer had to drop out due to scheduling issues.

“It was very hard work, because it’s so easy to start talking about battles when I want to talk about Napoleon. I kept reining it in, I kept going back to Joséphine,” Scott said.

And Phoenix is sure to point out that this isn’t some definitive biography, but is going for something more elusive and slipperier. “If you want to really understand Napoleon, then you should probably do your own studying and reading,” Phoenix told Empire. “Because if you see this film, it’s this experience told through Ridley’s eyes. It’s just such a complex world. I mean, it’s so f–ing complex. What we were after was something that would capture the feeling of this man.”

“Napoleon” is in theaters on November 22 and will be on Apple TV+ sometime after.

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