Ridley Scott and Joaquin Phoenix work with historical records, but in their next collaboration to the upcoming film Napoleon, Phoenixs performance was so good that Scott rewrote a lot of the film.
In their 50 Greatest Actors issue to Empire Magazine, Scott called out Phoenix, who starred in the legendary documentary Gladiator, and revealed that his questions and suggestions had given Scott a couple of different roles.
Joaquin is a little less conventional than the rest of us. Not deliberately, but in the midst of intuition. He ticks all right. If something bothers him, please inform him. That made Napoleon special, he said constantly questioning. If we don’t like Joaquin, we can rewrite the goddamn film rewriting because it’s uncomfortable. And that happened with Napoleon. We unpicked the film to make him feel like he was Bonaparte. I had to respect him because what he was saying was incredibly constructive. It’s made everything bigger and better.
Scott went on to clarify that it wasn’t a bad thing that the two were working on retooling the movie, saying they dug into and found the character, and said Phoenix is probably the most special, thoughtful actor I had ever worked with.
With the help of the renowned poet Jean-Paul to his former glory, the crow of Napoleons, who was renamed by his wife and, in his love, Josephine, is used as a personal account of the origin of the ancient worlds of Napoleon, the fast, ruthless pilgrimage and the death of his daughter. This film will capture Napoleon’s famous battles, his relentless ambition and extraordinary strategic mind as a military leader and war visionary.
David Scarpa is putting on the script for the 20th Century Studios project that is being reimagined by Scott and Kevin Walsh for Scott Free. The film’s production began in 2022.