The latest historical epic, Napoleon directed by Ridley Scott, featuring Joaquin Phoenix, follows the journey of Napoleon and is currently playing in the cinemas. To accurately depict his expedition, the team embarked on a global journey, including visits to Egypt and working with a real Pharaoh. However, a terrifying incident during filming with the Pharaoh left the Joker actor, in a state of shock.
Joaquin Phoenix Was Startled by a Pharaoh While Filming Napoleon
In Ridley Scott‘s film Napoleon featuring the incredible Joaquin Phoenix, they chose not to use any props for the sarcophagus corpse scene, instead, they employed an actual one. During a specific moment in the scene that required the actor to interact with the corpse, it unexpectedly shifted, greatly startling Phoenix. Despite this, being the professional he is, he maintained his composure until he heard the director call “cut.”
In an exclusive interview with Deadline, the director recounted this incident in great detail. He said,
“So what’s interesting though, as we were doing it, Napoleon, Joaquin, gets this box to stand on, he took off his hat, put it on top of the casket, and stared closely at the Pharaoh. Then he reached out gently to touch the surface of this skin that looks like brown paper at this point.”
He further continued,
“And the Pharaoh suddenly slipped to one side and gave Joaquin a hell of a shock. But I let it run. And he played with that momentarily, got down off the box, and when I said, cut, he said, did you do that? I said, no, it was an accident. It was fantastic. It scared the sh*t out of him. I said, no, no, no, I didn’t do that.”
Despite being genuinely startled, he managed to conceal his reaction at the moment. However, the situation became serious when Scott revealed that it wasn’t actually planned, but rather a mere accident.
The Egyptian Invasion Scene Is a Bit Controversial, Here’s Why!
Ridley Scott’s depiction of Napoleon’s Egyptian campaign in the film is facing backlash due to historical controversies surrounding the invasion since he is the first to ever portray it on the silver screen. It is widely believed that Napoleon wanted France to become even more powerful and in order to make that happen he wanted to hurt Britain’s trade with India by taking over Egypt, which worried people because it could in turn harm the Egyptian sovereignty.
Despite Napoleon’s claims of promoting French Revolutionary principles, many historians argue his true motives were strategic and strictly economic.
Criticism also further mounts as the film allegedly takes a few liberties with historical accuracy according to historian Dan Snow, portraying events such as firing at pyramids and damaging the Sphinx, which supposedly did not take place. Scott’s dismissive response in the Deadline interview to historical inaccuracies further intensifies the debate. He said,
“He wouldn’t be Tutankhamun, maybe a less important Pharaoh. They did raids and found and brought back a lot of wonderful artifacts from Egypt, including the needles of Cleopatra that are standing now in Paris. There was a lot of plundering done by Napoleon in those foreign places like Italy, where they took all the fine art out of the cathedral in Milan. I saw this wonderful two paintings. One was of a man sitting on a horse staring at the Sphinx, and it was Napoleon. So I thought I had to have that because no one has done the Egyptian campaign, and the truth.”
Despite all the criticisms and backlash, Ridley Scott has made his stance loud and clear advising the critics to “get a life“.
Napoleon was released in theaters on the 22nd of November and will be available on Apple TV to stream soon.
