BRIAN: Whacky Phoenix was just terrible
Cox blasts Hollywood’s historical epics as ‘lies’
BRIAN COX has ridiculed Ridley Scott’s Napoleon and Mel Gibson’s Braveheart, claiming the films are “b ****** s” and “lies”.
Taking aim at Joaquin Phoenix, who played the French emperor in Scott’s 2023 film, Cox claimed he would have done a far better job if given the role.
He also blasted Gibson’s film about William Wallace, despite having been cast as a relative of the Scots freedom fighter.
“It’s terrible. A truly terrible performance by Joaquin Phoenix,” Cox, 77, said. “I think it’s totally his fault and I don’t think Ridley Scott helps him.
“It’s a sort of whacky performance.
“I would have played it a lot better than Joaquin Phoenix, I tell you that.
“You can say it’s good drama. No – it’s lies.
Speaking at the HistFest event held at the British library at the weekend, the Succession star described Braveheart as “nonsense”.
Cox, who starred as Wallace’s Uncle Argyle in the 1995 Oscar-winning film, said: “Mel Gibson was wonderful but it’s a load of lies. He never impregnated the French princess. It is b ****** s, that film.”
The classically-trained actor has numerous accolades including two Laurence Olivier awards, an Emmy and a Golden Globe.
He is best known for film roles, including playing Hannibal Lecter in the 1986 film Manhunter, and as the wartime prime minister in 2017’s Churchill.
Cox, appearing in the West End production of Eugene O’Neill’s Long Day’s Journey Into Night, slammed theatre critics, who have tried to compare his stage role with that of Logan Roy in Succession.
He said: “Theatre criticism has gone right down the tubes.”