Joaquin Phoenix's Napoleon Can Take His Gladiator Greatness Even Further
Joaquin Phoenix is set to star in Ridley Scott's latest historical biopic Napoleon, which will provide him the chance to build upon his famous performance in 2000's Gladiator. In Gladiator, Phoenix portrayed the untrustworthy Emperor Commodus, who murdered his own father to gain control before tyrannically silencing General Maximus. Through this character, Phoenix was able to demonstrate power, greed, fear, and weakness before Commodus' eventual death. It has been 22 years since Phoenix and Scott's last collaboration, but this new film will hopefully offer an even deeper character for Phoenix to demonstrate his developed range, as Napoleon was a hero to many and a villain to many others.
Known for his extensive character acting, Joaquin Phoenix often remains in character throughout film shoots, as he works hard on adapting his demeanor throughout shooting. Like Christian Bale, Phoenix has been known to gain and lose weight for roles in the past. Napoleon will be Joaquin Phoenix's 55th acting credit and his 29th since Gladiator. In this time, he has continued to demonstrate his versatile acting ability, starring in many films whilst actively avoiding many large Hollywood blockbusters. Most notably he has led films like The Master, Walk the Line, and Her. Most recently, he has starred in Joker, earning an Oscar victory for his role of Arthur Fleck, a role for which Joaquin Phoenix transformed himself and lost weight for the role.
The dramatic role of Napoleon will allow Joaquin Phoenix to explore the early military career of the leader, into his eventual position as a political leader. With Ridley Scott helming this epic, there are already six confirmed battle sequences being shot. However, reflecting on the plot of Gladiator and Phoenix's role there, Scott is very likely to provide emotional and personal scenes that persuade and dissuade the audience from believing in Phoenix's Napoleon's cause. Phoenix's role in Gladiator was significant but not central, whereas in Napoleon, the focus will fully be on him. These scenes will provide Phoenix the opportunity to showcase his ever-developing acting capabilities, giving him moments that will give Phoenix a lot more room to flex his acting prowess. When compared to Ridley Scott's other historic epics, this one appears to be grounded much deeper in historical accuracy, which will lend even further to the character acting status of Joaquin Phoenix.
The specific historical moment that will take Phoenix's greatness in Gladiator further will be the eventual death of Napoleon. Phoenix is no stranger to death scenes and he has many years to perfect those moments. Napoleon is guaranteed to be as emotional and powerful as the leader himself. After leading a successful campaign of support for France his entire life, Napoleon died of stomach cancer. On top of the behind-the-scenes exploration of the character and the epic battles, it is Napoleon's death scene that will see Joaquin Phoenix thrive, further demonstrating his true range. This will play into Phoenix's established strengths that he has had 22 years to hone since Gladiator. Expect to see something similar to The Crown, where audiences saw the true story of George VI's suffering of cancer.
With such an illustrious acting career, Phoenix has kept himself a popular and prominent actor, whilst avoiding managing to avoid falling back on appearances in summer blockbuster films. His role as Napoleon is likely to only heighten his acting skills and demonstrate his true capabilities as a character actor, which audiences saw glimpses of in 2000's Gladiator. Napoleon is currently scheduled for release in 2023.