By Veteran British actor Brian Cox makes for great copy as the “Succession” star is frank and speaks his mind on all sorts of topics during interviews.
Cox turned up as a featured speaker at HistFest recently, a two-day event in London celebrating the intersection of arts, academics and history.
According to The Standard, Cox let loose on a variety of things tied to the theme of the discussion, including Ridley Scott’s “Napoleon” about which he didn’t exactly have nice things to say:
“It’s terrible. A truly terrible performance by Joaquin Phoenix. It really is appalling. I don’t know what he was thinking. I think it’s totally his fault and I don’t think Ridley Scott helps him.
I would have played it a lot better than Joaquin Phoenix, I tell you that. You can say it’s good drama. No — it’s lies. I think he’s well named. Joaquin … wackeen … wacky. It’s a sort of wacky performance.”
Cox didn’t stop there, stretching out to the broader topic of historical accuracy being sacrificed to meet the needs of blockbuster filmmaking.
That’s when Cox turned his attention to another film in the genre – Mel Gibson’s 1995 Oscar winner “Braveheart” in which Cox himself had a role as Argyle Wallace – uncle of Gibson’s William Wallace and a sort of mentor in the film:
“‘Braveheart’ is a load of nonsense. Mel Gibson was wonderful but it’s a load of lies. He never impregnated the French princess. It is a bollocks [sic] that film.”
Scott famously told historical fact checkers decrying his “Napoleon” film to “get a life” during an interview last year.
Cox has a busy slate ahead. He’s voicing Santa Claus in the Richard Curtis-penned animated film “That Christmas”, and the wonderfully named Helm Hammerhand in the animated “The Lord of the Rings: The War of the Rohirrim” film, and he recently filmed Joe and Anthony Russo’s “The Electric State”.
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