'Mission: Impossible' actress Vanessa Kirby slapped by 'Napoleon' co-star Joaquin Phoenix during filming

foxnews.com:

Joaquin Phoenix slapped his co-star Vanessa Kirby on the set of their upcoming movie "Napoleon" after the two made an agreement to "shock each other" during filming.

The 48-year-old Academy Award winner, who plays Napoleon Bonaparte and the 35-year-old "Mission: Impossible – Dead Reckoning Part One" actress, who portrays his wife Josephine de Beauharnais, opened up to Empire magazine about how they built trust while shooting the Ridley Scott-directed historical drama.

Ahead of filming an intense scene, the two had a discussion in which they agreed to give each other free rein to improvise when it came to physical interactions. "She said, ‘Look, 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,’" Phoenix remembered.

He continued, "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." During the scene, the emperor and his wife – who shared a passionate, volatile relationship -- are divorcing in a grand ceremony that was historically documented. "We were using the real words from their divorce in the church," Kirby explained. "When that happens, you can faithfully go through an archival re-enactment of it and read out the lines and then go home.