Brian Cox didn’t mince words when it came to giving his opinion on Joaquin Phoenix’s latest movie, the Napoleon biopic.

The Joker star played opposite Vanessa Kirby, and it seems his performance angered Brian Cox, who seemed to be beside himself as he slammed Joaquin Phoenix’s acting skills.

The Succession actor even went as far as to say he would have done a much better job if he had gotten the role instead, which elicited both anger and laughter from fans online, who were shocked and amused by Brian Cox’s bluntness.

Brian Cox Slammed Joaquin Phoenix’s Performance In ‘Napoleon’

It took little prompting for Brian Cox to express his brutally honest opinion about Joaquin Phoenix’s performance in Napoleon. He was extremely blunt in the way he criticized not only the actor but the movie, and didn’t hold anything back.

“Terrible. It’s terrible. A truly terrible performance by Joaquin Phoenix,” he stated. “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.” He also called the people who praised Napoleon liars. “You can say it’s good drama. No – it’s lies.”

The Succession star didn’t stop there, and his attacks on Joaquin Phoenix took a personal turn. “I think he’s well named. Joaquin… whackeen… whacky. It’s a sort of whacky performance,” he quipped.

Joaquin Phoenix’s Napoleon wasn’t the only movie that Brian Cox decided to slam. He was on a roll, and went after Braveheart for some reason, even though the movie came out almost 20 years ago. He criticized it for being inaccurate, but was kinder towards Mel Gibson despite not liking his movie.

“Braveheart is a load of nonsense,” he said. “Mel Gibson was wonderful but it’s a load of lies. He never impregnated the French princess. It is a bollocks [sic] that film.”

Napoleon’s Reviews

The reviews of Ridley Scott’s Napoleon don’t seem to agree with Brian Cox’s assessment. Even those reviews which rated the movie unfavorably had nothing but nice things to say about Joaquin Phoenix’s acting, and the criticism focused more on the story than on the actor’s skills.

The Guardian gave the movie a 5-star score, and titled the review “Joaquin Phoenix makes a magnificent emperor in thrilling biopic.”

“Ridley Scott – the Wellington of cinema – has created an outrageously enjoyable cavalry charge of a movie, a full-tilt biopic of two and a half hours in which Scott doesn’t allow his troops to get bogged down mid-gallop in the muddy terrain of either fact or metaphysical significance, the tactical issues that have defeated other film-makers,” they wrote.

CNN was tougher on the director, but still praised Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby. In fact, they said that the movie didn’t make such a big impact, but that was “despite the best efforts of Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby.”

It seems that even those who didn’t like Napoleon don’t agree with Brian Cox, as almost everyone seems to agree that Joaquin Phoenix did a good job.