Joaquin Phoenix spotted ‘walking out’ of Napoleon premiere before even seeing film

Joaquin Phoenix has a new movie coming to cinemas, the historical epic Napoleon where he plays the Corsican soldier turned French Emperor throughout his life.

Directed by Ridley Scott, who recently advised people with quibbles about the historical accuracy of Napoleon to 'get a life', the film is soon to release on the big screen.

The film is already picking up plenty of glowing reviews and it had a world premiere at the Salle Pleyel in Paris last night (14 November).

However, Phoenix was spotted reportedly leaving the theatre before the film had even started alongside partner Rooney Mara.

Variety's Elsa Keslassy got a spot of footage of the Napoleon star heading out of the movie theatre and claimed that Phoenix 'didn't give any interviews' at the world premiere of the film.

Now that the SAG-AFTRA strike has been resolved actors are once again able to promote their films, which includes attending the premiere.

You may remember the moment that the cast of Oppenheimer walked out of the movie's premiere in solidarity with their fellow striking actors, with the stars able to have about an hour of promoting the film before leaving.

A number of people who saw the video noted that Phoenix 'famously hates interviews', while others said he doesn't tend to watch his own films which would help explain why he didn't stick around.

According to Variety, director Ridley Scott also decided to duck out of part of the evening, though he 'skipped the carpet entirely' and gave a speech on stage before the premiere.

During his speech Scott joked that he'd made 10 movies with Sony Pictures CEO Tom Rothman and somehow they were 'still good friends' after all that.

Joaquin Phoenix didn’t miss journalists during the 118-day SAG-AFTRA strike. He didn’t give any interviews at the world premiere of #Napoleon in Paris. And he walked out of the theater before the movie started. Is he still in character? pic.twitter.com/Rzri7DVDmx

— Elsa Keslassy (@ElsaKeslassy) November 14, 2023

Also at the Napoleon premiere was Vanessa Kirby, who plays Josephine de Beauharnais in the movie, and said she had a 'lot of empathy for her character'.

"It was difficult in many ways to be the feminine in that extremely masculine world and she did such an amazing job of remaining dignified until the end," Kirby said of her character in the film.

Already very well regarded among critics, Napoleon will be in the running for major awards, with Ridley Scott, Joaquin Phoenix and Vanessa Kirby likely to be in the running for the big gongs.

While it looks like he didn't stick around for the movie's screening at the premiere, Phoenix was in the theatre to see drummers perform on stage while dressed as Napoleonic era soldiers.

Napoleon releases in cinemas on 22 November.