Ridley Scott Claps Back at French ‘Napoleon’ Critics: ‘The French Don’t Even Like Themselves’

Scott had more smoke for critics in a conversation with Total Film, saying, “I’ve done a lot of historical films. I find I’m reading a report of someone else’s report 100 years after the event. So I wonder, ‘How much do they romance and elaborate? How accurate is it?’ It always amuses me when a critic says to me, ‘This didn’t happen in Jerusalem.’ I say, ‘Were you there? That’s the fucking answer.'”

Although Joaquin Phoenix didn’t address Snow’s debunking TikTok video, he weighed in on the matter in a separate interview with Empire magazine, saying, “If you want to really understand Napoleon, then you should probably do your own studying and reading. Because if you see this film, it’s this experience told through Ridley’s eyes.”

Napoleon, starring Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby as his wife Josephine de Beauharnais, premiered in Paris, France on Nov. 14 and hits U.S. theaters on Nov. 22.