There's No Way 'Napoleon' Could Ever Be As Entertaining As Ridley Scott's Interviews About 'Napoleon'

Hilarious, sweary, brutally blunt - I can't get enough of the director's 'f*ck it' vibe

NAPOLEON is in cinemas right now. It’s the kind of huge, lavish, big-budget epic I wish Hollywood made more of. But I don’t care as much about seeing it right now as I do about reading more comments from its director Ridley Scott about it and pretty much anything else he feels like talking about - including other directors’ work. Here are a few highlights from the past month in case you need something to lift your spirits.

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How does Ridley Scott respond to not having an Oscar after four decades of directing iconic films?

“I don’t really care.”

But he did have this to say all the same…

'“You know, I haven’t gotten an Oscar yet. And, if I ever get one, I’ll say, ‘About feckin’ time!’”

How does he respond to French critics who didn’t enjoy NAPOLEON?

“The French don’t even like themselves.”

He has this to say about casting Joaquin Phoenix as Napoleon:

“I was blown away by his outrageous performance as Joker. I didn’t like the way the film condoned violence, celebrated violence. I didn’t like that. But he was remarkable.”

How does he respond to critics who question NAPOLEON’s historical veracity?

"You really want me to answer that? It will have a bleep in it."

Or this:

"Were you there? Oh, you weren't there. Then how do you know?"

Or this:

“Excuse me, mate, were you there? No? Well, shut the fuck up then.”

Or this:

“There are 10,000 books about Napoleon, and they’re full of both truth and conjecture. But I left reading the books to the poor bastard who had to write the screenplay.”

What did he say when asked specifically about the veracity of Napoleon having his men fire cannons at the pyramids?

“I don’t know if he did that, but it was a fast way of saying he took Egypt.”

Then he had these thoughts on the actual pyramids:

“How did the Egyptians build the pyramids? Rolling 20-ton stones on logs? Fuck off!”

Here are his thoughts on shooting NAPOLEON’s biggest battle scene:

“I shot it in 62 days. Normally it would take you 110, but I discovered in recent years, or actually two years ago, that two cameras are twice as fast, four cameras are four and six and eight cameras are eight times faster. So you’re scheduling a scene for the day, and I’ll be finished at 11 o’clock.”

Someone asked him about the origin of famous shot of Maximus’s hand passing over wheat in GLADIATOR:

“It was the last shot of principal photography. Russell [Crowe] didn’t come to Italy, it was his double. The guy was standing there in this field, smoking. I go, get out of the field, are you joking? It was mid-summer, dry. He says, ‘Oh, sorry man.’ He walked out [off the field], and did that thing with the hand. I said, ‘Stop right there. Get the Steadicam.’”

What does he think about the rise of AI?

“We are all completely fucked. We’re back to candles and matches. Do you have candles and matches at home? I live in France, so I do.”

What advice would he give his younger self?

"No advice. I did pretty good.”

Does he think movies are getting too long?

“I’m not naming names, but yes. You’ve got to consider the bum-ache factor! You’ve got to have something really special to go past three hours.”

What does he think of Martin Scorsese’s cinematic existential angst?

“Well, since he started KILLERS OF THE FLOWER MOON, I’ve made four films. No, I don’t think about it. I get up in the morning, and say, "‘Ah, great! Another day of stress.’”

Sources: The Standard, BBC, Vulture. The Times, The New Yorker, Deadline

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