A big reason why movie buffs were curious about Napoleon – which is currently in theaters, and will be available to people with an AppleTV+ account in the coming weeks – is that it marked the first reunion between lead actor Joaquin Phoenix and director Ridley Scott since Gladiator. That 2000 release won Best Picture, Best Actor (for Russell Crowe), and notched Oscar nominations for Phoenix and Scott. But it has been so long since the film came out, it’s easy to forget that Phoenix was in his mid-20s at the time of filming. And while he had film and television experience heading into Gladiator, he hadn’t experienced filmmaking on that scale… and Ridley Scott noticed it.
Joaquin Phoenix plays Commodus in the film, son of a great leader who murders his father in order to assume his throne. Phoenix is back playing a famous military leader in Napoleon, and excelling at it based on our review. But when Phoenix returned to CinemaBlend’s official ReelBlend podcast, he started thinking back to his earlier collaboration with Sir Ridley Scott, and reliving a few horrors he experienced during the beginning of the shoot. As Phoenix told us:
