Berliner Boersenzeitung - Joaquin Phoenix on playing small 'petulant tyrant' Napoleon

EUR -
AED 4.100273
AFN 78.60757
ALL 98.166966
AMD 432.286638
ANG 1.997847
AOA 1023.661719
ARS 1274.492205
AUD 1.739351
AWG 2.012159
AZN 1.902168
BAM 1.95574
BBD 2.26123
BDT 136.075794
BGN 1.960574
BHD 0.420487
BIF 3332.496993
BMD 1.116315
BND 1.454255
BOB 7.738761
BRL 6.322034
BSD 1.119965
BTN 95.745041
BWP 15.144532
BYN 3.665087
BYR 21879.783696
BZD 2.24963
CAD 1.559549
CDF 3204.942189
CHF 0.935299
CLF 0.027413
CLP 1051.967484
CNY 8.048081
CNH 8.048713
COP 4704.554582
CRC 567.282465
CUC 1.116315
CUP 29.582361
CVE 110.261592
CZK 24.899757
DJF 199.433835
DKK 7.461011
DOP 65.907963
DZD 148.865399
EGP 55.928271
ERN 16.744732
ETB 151.194627
FJD 2.537725
FKP 0.83994
GBP 0.840567
GEL 3.05914
GGP 0.83994
GHS 13.887571
GIP 0.83994
GMD 80.937172
GNF 9698.700213
GTQ 8.598734
GYD 234.312757
HKD 8.722499
HNL 29.141099
HRK 7.532941
HTG 146.54547
HUF 402.867531
IDR 18412.786848
ILS 3.96752
IMP 0.83994
INR 95.543378
IQD 1467.15465
IRR 47010.84053
ISK 145.891703
JEP 0.83994
JMD 178.534481
JOD 0.791807
JPY 162.594147
KES 144.755526
KGS 97.622219
KHR 4481.861466
KMF 492.857526
KPW 1004.7411
KRW 1561.859763
KWD 0.343145
KYD 0.933371
KZT 571.02235
LAK 24221.251321
LBP 100346.698283
LKR 335.109642
LRD 223.983077
LSL 20.217275
LTL 3.29619
LVL 0.675249
LYD 6.178809
MAD 10.389879
MDL 19.509397
MGA 5019.844837
MKD 61.528098
MMK 2343.6765
MNT 3999.013199
MOP 9.015121
MRU 44.32763
MUR 51.47373
MVR 17.25866
MWK 1941.939975
MXN 21.73009
MYR 4.795735
MZN 71.336723
NAD 20.217275
NGN 1788.71739
NIO 41.208726
NOK 11.593835
NPR 153.192265
NZD 1.897963
OMR 0.429497
PAB 1.119965
PEN 4.129072
PGK 4.654856
PHP 62.294316
PKR 315.375252
PLN 4.268991
PYG 8941.723611
QAR 4.081974
RON 5.106255
RSD 117.226377
RUB 90.497203
RWF 1603.750428
SAR 4.186829
SBD 9.31055
SCR 15.922308
SDG 670.351558
SEK 10.907859
SGD 1.452108
SHP 0.877249
SLE 25.344455
SLL 23408.578004
SOS 640.080215
SRD 40.8365
STD 23105.476908
SVC 9.799697
SYP 14514.261285
SZL 20.222375
THB 37.223582
TJS 11.546543
TMT 3.912686
TND 3.376696
TOP 2.614527
TRY 43.377235
TTD 7.596765
TWD 33.732379
TZS 3021.006621
UAH 46.488763
UGX 4097.873335
USD 1.116315
UYU 46.59856
UZS 14520.55117
VES 105.163869
VND 28936.572095
VUV 133.952878
WST 3.099125
XAF 655.936725
XAG 0.034581
XAU 0.000349
XCD 3.016899
XDR 0.815775
XOF 655.936725
XPF 119.331742
YER 272.496621
ZAR 20.143411
ZMK 10048.183034
ZMW 30.104069
ZWL 359.453134
  • RBGPF

    1.5000

    64.5

    +2.33%

  • CMSC

    -0.0500

    22.05

    -0.23%

  • SCS

    0.0000

    10.5

    0%

  • NGG

    1.2500

    71.28

    +1.75%

  • RELX

    0.5300

    54.57

    +0.97%

  • GSK

    0.4991

    37.64

    +1.33%

  • VOD

    0.1800

    9.45

    +1.9%

  • BTI

    1.2700

    42.64

    +2.98%

  • RYCEF

    -0.0900

    10.7

    -0.84%

  • BCC

    0.9200

    91.91

    +1%

  • CMSD

    0.0472

    22.06

    +0.21%

  • JRI

    0.1600

    12.9

    +1.24%

  • RIO

    -0.1100

    62.64

    -0.18%

  • BCE

    -0.0700

    21.56

    -0.32%

  • BP

    0.1300

    29.76

    +0.44%

  • AZN

    0.8500

    68.81

    +1.24%

Joaquin Phoenix on playing small 'petulant tyrant' Napoleon
Joaquin Phoenix on playing small 'petulant tyrant' Napoleon / Photo: Geoffroy Van der Hasselt - AFP

Joaquin Phoenix on playing small 'petulant tyrant' Napoleon

Joaquin Phoenix said he was surprised to discover a version of Napoleon who was more like a soppy "teenager in love" than an all-conquering commander as he researched his epic new role.

Text size:

Ridley Scott's "Napoleon", which hits cinemas worldwide next week, features massive-scale battles across Europe.

But it is also a portrait of Napoleon's complex relationship with his wife Josephine, played by Vanessa Kirby, which has been preserved in the general's often tragically pleading letters.

"He was very socially awkward. I think of him as a romantic with a mathematician's brain," Phoenix told AFP in Paris.

"He wanted to be heartfelt but in his letters... he seems like a teenager in love, almost plagiarising 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 that he was cold and calculated as a great military strategist. What I was surprised by was the sense of humour and how child-like he was."

Phoenix, 49, said he had waited more than 20 years to work with Scott again after their huge success with "Gladiator" in which he played another emperor, Commodus.

But the director didn't call until "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 cheap comparisons between the war-mongering emperor he plays and the conflicts currently ravaging the world.

"If I was in the midst of a conflict, the last thing I'd want is to hear from some actor sitting in the Bristol Hotel," he told 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, that cost a bunch of f---ing money, with something that's happening. I feel that's just wrong."

- 'Obsession and infatuation' -

Kirby said the relationship between Napoleon and Josephine was fascinating but "exhausting".

"I always found it amazing that this man who built an empire could write these letters," she said.

"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' research was complicated by the vastly different accounts that have come down through the centuries.

"It's very hard to get a clear answer about many things," said Phoenix, who said his interest was in finding "inspiration more than information", through details 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 a laugh.

The same for Josephine.

"Every book was completely different," said Kirby. "It made me feel she was an adapter... playing different parts to survive."

(A.Lehmann--BBZ)