Napoleon director Ridley Scott on working with Joaquin Phoenix: ‘I like stress’

The film portrays Napoleon, a historical figure both revered and criticised in France, as a ruthless military tactician whose softer, vulnerable side was uncovered by his wife Josephine, played by British actress Vanessa Kirby.

In addition to collaborating with Phoenix, Ridley Scott said he also wanted to return to a theme he first explored in his feature film debut in 1977.

“In The Duellists I end on Napoleon Bonaparte. That’s the reason why. I enjoy that part of France and the whole ambience of that culture. So, I wanted to go back to it completely with Napoleon,” he told Reuters on the red carpet.

The director, 85, whose long career includes hit films such as Thelma & Louise, Alien and The Martian, said his production team was dedicated to making the historical epic look accurate.

“Every aspect of what you see from armoury to horses to saddles to hats, to the wardrobe, it’s all researched. I sit there like an octopus glomming all this stuff coming at me because they’ve researched everyone.

“I’m like a child, I look at picture books. I go ‘I like that’. So, I don’t do anything.”

Filmed during the pandemic, Ridley Scott and his frequent collaborator for cinematography, Dariusz Wolski, orchestrated elaborate battle scenes, that recounted Napoleon’s conquests in Austerlitz and Moscow, and his famous defeat in Waterloo.

“Since the beginning of the pandemic I’ve made The Last Duel, Gucci, Napoleon Bonaparte, and I’m halfway through Gladiator (2). We don’t stop. We ran that protecting it like an army. I had no COVID problems at all,” Scott said.

Napoleon is out in cinemas on November 24.