Napoleon: Why Joaquin Phoenix Slapped His Co-Star Vanessa Kirby While Filming

Given the ferocious presence he brought to the director's 2000 action epic "Gladiator" as the evil Prince Commodus, it shouldn't come as a huge surprise that Joaquin Phoenix was deeply involved In shaping Ridley Scott's upcoming "Napoleon" movie. And while the film chronicles the historic French emperor's time in battle, also integral to the narrative is Napoleon Bonaparte's erratic marriage to his first wife, Joséphine, played by "The Crown" and "Mission: Impossible" star Vanessa Kirby.

To ensure authenticity, "Napoleon" scribe David Scarpa incorporated historical text into his screenplay. "We were using the real words from their divorce in the church," Kirby told Empire magazine. "When that happens, you can faithfully go through an archival re-enactment of it and read out the lines and then go home. But we always wanted to surprise each other." Thankfully, Kirby added, Phoenix was willing to take chances and delve into the darker aspects of Napoleon and Joséphine's ill-fated union. "It's the greatest thing when you have a creative partner and you say, 'Right, everything's safe. I'm with you. And we're gonna go to the dark places together,'" Kirby said.

According to Empire, part of the surprise came when the "Joker" Oscar winner made real physical contact with Kirby by slapping her. Phoenix recalled, "She said, 'Look, whatever you feel, you can do.' I said, 'Same thing with you.' She said, 'You can slap me, you can grab me, you can pull me, you can kiss me, whatever it is.'"

While "Napoleon's" first trailer debuts Ridley Scott's brutish emperor on the battlefield, interspersed are scenes of the French leader's first meeting with Joséphine, their illicit courtship, and ultimately, the influence she had over him. That's only a snapshot, though, of a much larger portrait of the couple that works in the elements of surprise that Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby intended to bring to the film. "We had this agreement that we were going to surprise each other and try and create moments that weren't there, because both of us wanted to avoid the cliché of the period drama," Phoenix told Empire. "And by that, I mean moments that are well-orchestrated and designed."

As such, the absence of prefabricated scenes — plus no definitive answers about the driving force behind Napoleon and Joséphine's volatile relationship — allowed for the actors to freely create such fierce actions as the slap, Phoenix told the publication. "We never really got to the bottom of it," Phoenix explained. "I don't know if you can call it love. I don't know what it was. But we encouraged each other, demanded of each other, to challenge ourselves to shock each other in moments. And that's what came out of that, that moment."

"Napoleon" is scheduled to open in theaters on November 22, 2023.