10 Actors Who Just Gave Their Best Performance Ever

Never a director to sit in his tower counting beans, Ridley Scott returned to our screens in 2023 with historical epic Napoleon, charting the French emperor's military career through to his somewhat untimely death.

Joaquin Phoenix starred as the little man himself, but if anyone expected the fine balance of tyrannical sadism and ill-tempered wroth that the actor crafted during his portrayal of Roman emperor Commodus in Scott's Gladiator, they were solely mistaken. To Napoleon, Phoenix brought a comic presence that makes the legendary general seem more like a Monty Python character than a man capable of conquering half of Europe.

But, no matter what clownery Phoenix has shoehorned into his part, other of the film's actors took their roles to heart. By far the stand-out performance from Napoleon was the frustratingly brief effort from Rupert Everett as Arthur Wellesley, Duke of Wellington. Everett plays the commander who defeated Napoleon with an even balance of pomp and dry wit, arriving late in proceedings and stealing every scene he is in. The final battle is very much his for the taking, and despite the limited material from writer David Scarpa, he makes it his own.

The film may have deeply offended the French and played fast and loose with recorded history, but Everett's performance is enough to make any flag-waving Brit proud. And, for we Scots, it was amazing just to see him without his cone.