Kirby agreed to slap from Phoenix while filming a scene for ‘Napoleon’
Los Angeles Times
Joaquin Phoenix unexpectedly slapped Vanessa Kirby while shooting a scene for “Napoleon.”
It was done, he said, to maintain an element of surprise. And, surprisingly, Kirby had given her consent.
Oscar winner Phoenix plays the titular role in Ridley Scott’s movie about the French military commander and Kirby plays his wife, Joséphine de Beauharnais. In an attempt to reflect the emperor and empress’ chaotic relationship in the late 1700s — and infuse spontaneity into the historical material — the actors allowed themselves to go to dark places, they said in a new Empire interview that was conducted prior to the Hollywood actors’ strike.
One such dark place involved the unscripted slap Phoenix planted on “The Crown” star’s face.
“We were using the real words from their divorce in the church,” Kirby told the magazine. “When that happens, you can faithfully go
Joaquin Phoenix unexpectedly slapped Vanessa Kirby while shooting a scene for “Napoleon.” It was done, he said, to maintain an element of surprise.
through an archival re-enactment of it and read out the lines and then go home. But we always wanted to surprise each other.”
“Napoleon,” written by “All the Money in the World” screenwriter David Scarpa, opens in theaters on Thanksgiving.
Phoenix, a famously immersive actor, said he and the “Mission: Impossible” franchise star mutually agreed to do “whatever”
they felt they needed to do, including getting physical.
“I said, ‘Same thing with you,’ ” Phoenix added, “She said, ‘You can slap me, you can grab me, you can pull me, you can kiss me, whatever it is.’ So 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. And by that I mean moments that are well-orchestrated and designed.”
Kirby, 35, praised the “Joker” actor for being so open to the process: “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.’ ”
Phoenix, 48, added that the two of them “encouraged” and “demanded” that they challenge themselves to shock each other.