Hollywood star Brian Cox is not one to mince words. The veteran actor, who played the daunting billionaire patriarch Logan Roy in the much-celebrated HBO series Succession, has offered his scathing [to put it mildly] review of actor Joaquin Phoenix's role in Ridley Scott's Napoleon. Cox called Phoenix's portrayal of the French emperor “terrible” and added that he would have played the historical character better. At London's HistFest, The Standard quoted Cox as saying, “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.”
Pointing out the historical inaccuracies in period dramas, Cox also trained his lens on the 1995 hit Braveheart. Cox also featured in the project headlined by Mel Gibson. About the film, 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.”
Cox's no-holds-barred assessment of Phoenix's performance and his own film caught the internet's eye and a meme-fest followed. Needless to say, most of them were inspired by scenes and dialogues from Succession.
One user said: “When I'm in a hater competition and I see Brian Cox walk through the door.”
A third user wrote: “Brian Cox walking into the Academy Awards next year,” followed by the popular meme that features a man saying: “I hate you, I hate you, I don't even know you and I hate your guts.”
Referring to Succession [again], a user said: “Brian Cox is so committed to hating though, he is literally Logan Roy.” The tweet attached features screen grabs of the actor criticising the work of several Hollywood stars. For instance, one image quoted him as saying about Johnny Depp: “He is so overrated. I mean, Edward Scissorhands. Let's face it, if you come on with hands like that and pale, scarred-face make-up, you don't have to do anything. And he didn't. And subsequently, he's done even less."
About his Succession co-star Jeremy Strong, he said: “[Jeremy] Strong is talented. He's f-cking gifted. When you've got the gift, celebrate the gift. Go back to your trailer and have a hit of marijuana, you know?"
About English action legend Micheal Caine, Cox was quoted as saying: “I wouldn't describe Michael as my favourite, but he's Michael Caine. An institution. And being an institution will always beat having range.”
Leaning on good old The Office for a meme, one user said: “No I insist Brian Cox… “tell us how you really feel.” Are words that have never been uttered.”
“I feel like getting a verbal burn from Brian Cox is something you get embroidered and hung on a wall,” wrote a user about Cox's comments.
One user mused: “Is Brian Cox okay? Why has he suddenly turned into grandpa Simpson with all the complaining!”
At the same event, Brian Cox also shared his two-bits about American politics. “It's very hard to govern America and you certainly don't need idiots like Trump doing that. I do think that Biden is a good man but he's too old,” the 77-year-old actor said. His upcoming projects include The Parenting and Riff Raff, among others.