LOS ANGELES, CALIFORNIA - JANUARY 16: Brian Cox appears onstage at the "Succession" FYC Event at ... [+]
Succession star Brian Cox took shots at Joaquin Phoenix’s and Mel Gibson’s work at a U.K. festival over the weekend that celebrates history.
Cox — who played Logan Roy, the cutthroat CEO of his family’s media conglomerate in Succession for four seasons from 2018-2023 — let loose with some pointed observations about the historical films of Phoenix and Gibson at HistFest. The annual event brings together academics, teachers and public figures to discuss historical events.
Cox first picked apart Phoenix’s performance as French Emperor Napoleon Bonaparte in director Ridley Scott’s 2023 historical epic Napoleon during the Sunday panel Brian Cox: History on Stage and Screen.
“Terrible. It’s terrible. A truly terrible performance by Joaquin Phoenix,” Cox said at HistFest (via The Evening Standard). “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.”
Cox even went so far as to poke fun at Phoenix’s first name in relation to his turn as Bonaparte.
“I think he’s well-named. Joaquin … whackeen ... whacky,” Cox said during the live event. “It’s a sort of whacky performance.”
MADRID, SPAIN - NOVEMBER 20: Actor Joaquin Phoenix attends the "Napoleon" premiere at the El Prado ... [+]
Cox Knocks The Historical Accuracy Of ‘Braveheart’
While Joaquin Phoenix was the main target of Brian Cox’s criticism at HistFest, the actor also knocked the historical accuracy of Mel Gibson’s 1995 war epic Braveheart.
Cox’s take on Braveheart was unique, though, since he starred as Argyle Wallace — the uncle of Gibson’s William Wallace — in the historical film about Scotland’s fight for freedom against England’s tyrannical King Edward I (Patrick McGoohan).
“Braveheart is a load of nonsense,” Cox said at HistFest (via The Evening Standard). “Mel Gibson was wonderful but it’s a load of lies. He never impregnated the French princess. It is a bollocks [sic] that film.”
Braveheart went on to win big at the Academy Awards in 1996, capturing five Oscars including Best Picture and Best Director for Gibson.
While Cox became a critic of Phoenix’s and Gibson’s work at HistFest, he also took aim at critics of his new staging of Eugene O’Neill’s classic play A Long Day’s Journey Into Night in London’s West End. In particular, Cox was incensed over how critics tried to compare his role of James to his turn as Logan Roy in Succession.
“It’s stupid! Why make that comparison? It’s so obvious. Most critics are stupid. They really are,” Cox said as HistFest. “Theatre criticism has gone right down the tubes. You think of those wonderful critics of the past, there’s nobody to match them now. Because they don’t do their homework.”
