We can always count on Brian Cox to call it like he sees it. The infamously unfiltered Scottish actor recently turned his ever-uncompromising aim towards fellow thespian Joaquin Phoenix, blasting his work on the film Napoleon.
Directed by Ridley Scott with Phoenix as the title Machiavellian emperor, Napoleon was panned by critics and audiences for being disjointed, tonally confusing, and not particularly enlightening regarding the historical figure at its center. Brian Cox, it seems, was among the dissenters.
Speaking at a London History Festival on April 14, Cox shared his thoughts on the unpopular film, placing the blame almost entirely on Phoenix’s performance.
“Terrible. It’s terrible. A truly terrible performance by Joaquin Phoenix. It really is appalling,” the Succession star said. He went on to say the film’s poor quality was “totally” its lead actor’s “fault,” that his director didn’t do him any favors, and that its narrative was made up of “lies.”
Cox didn’t stop there, either. The 78-year-old Emmy winner affirmed that he would have done a better job than Phoenix before mocking his name. “I think he’s well-named. Joaquin…’whackeen’… whacky. It’s a sort of whacky performance.”
If you’re wondering why Cox was even talking about Napoleon in the first place when he had no part in the film, it’s because the actor’s panel at London’s Histfest 2024 was precisely about representing history on stage and screen. He was critical of his own filmography in that regard, calling Braveheart, in which he plays the uncle to Mel Gibson’s William Wallace, “a load of nonsense and lies.”
“He never impregnated the French princess. It is a bollocks [sic] that film,” Cox bluntly stated. Well, he calls it like he sees it.
