Joaquin Phoenix mentioned he was shocked to find a model of Napoleon who was extra like a soppy “teenager in love” than an all-conquering commander as he researched his epic new position.
Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon,” which hits cinemas worldwide subsequent week, options massive-scale battles throughout Europe.
But it is usually a portrait of Napoleon’s complicated relationship together with his spouse Josephine, performed by Vanessa Kirby, which has been preserved within the common’s usually tragically pleading letters.
“He was very socially awkward. I think of him as a romantic with a mathematician’s brain,” Phoenix instructed Agence France-Presse (AFP) in Paris.
“He needed to be heartfelt, however in his letters… he looks like a young person in love, virtually plagiarizing poetry.
“There’s something almost endearing about it — if he wasn’t also responsible for the deaths of millions of people,” Phoenix added.
“I imagined he was cold and calculated as a great military strategist. What I was surprised by was the sense of humor and how childlike he was.”
Phoenix, 49, mentioned he had waited over 20 years to work with Scott once more after their large success with “Gladiator,” wherein he performed one other emperor, Commodus.
But the director did not name till “he had a story about a petit, petulant tyrant, and he said ‘I’ve got just the guy!'” Phoenix joked.
The “Joker” star refused to be drawn into any low cost comparisons between the war-mongering emperor he performs and the conflicts at the moment ravaging the world.
“If I was amid a conflict, the last thing I’d want is to hear from some actor sitting in the Bristol Hotel,” he instructed AFP.
“There’s such real pain and heartache people are experiencing right now and I don’t want to conflate a movie I’m in.”
‘Obsession and infatuation’
Kirby mentioned the connection between Napoleon and Josephine was fascinating however “exhausting.”
“I always found it amazing that this man who built an empire could write these letters,” she mentioned.
“They were so inexorably drawn to each other, but to me, it never seemed sane, calm, healthy – it was obsession and infatuation and power dynamics that would swing,” Kirby added.
The actors’ analysis was difficult by the vastly completely different accounts which have come down by way of the centuries.
“It’s very hard to get a clear answer about many things,” mentioned Phoenix, who mentioned his curiosity was find “inspiration more than information,” by way of particulars like how Napoleon ate and drank.
“Some of it is ridiculous – two weeks before we were shooting, someone said, ‘You know Napoleon was left-handed.’ And then it took a week to disprove that,” Phoenix added with amusing.
The similar for Josephine.
“Every book was completely different,” mentioned Kirby. “It made me feel she was an adapter… playing different parts to survive.”
Source: www.dailysabah.com