Joaquin Phoenix is opening up about working with Vanessa Kirby in Ridley Scott‘s Napoleon.

In a new interview with Empire, the two stars recalled filming Napoleon and Empress Josephine’s divorce scene and revealed that they wanted to ‘shock each other’ with their actions.

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“We were using the real words from their divorce in the church,” Vanessa shared with the outlet. “When that happens, you can faithfully go through an archival re-enactment of it and read out the lines and then go home. But we always wanted to surprise each other.”

Joaquin then shared that Vanessa gave him that permission to do ‘whatever you feel, you can do.’”

“I said, ‘Same thing with you.’ She said, ‘You can slap me, you can grab me, you can pull me, you can kiss me, whatever it is,” he said. “We had this agreement that we were going to surprise each other and try and create moments that weren’t there, because both of us wanted to avoid the cliché of the period drama. And by that I mean moments that are well-orchestrated and designed.”

“It’s the greatest thing when you have a creative partner and you say, ‘Right, everything’s safe. I’m with you. And we’re gonna go to the dark places together,’” Vanessa added.

Watch the full trailer for the movie now!

Napoleon will be out in theaters on Thanksgiving weekend on November 22, 2023.