“It was such a privilege to learn about Josephine,” says Vanessa Kirby about playing the one true love of “Napoleon”

Before playing Josephine in Ridley Scott’s action epic Napoleon, Vanessa Kirby took a deep-dive into the character by reading and studying as much as she could.   

“I was actually quite astonished that I knew so little,” she says. “So it was a pleasure: I locked myself away and just read every book I could, about her and about him [Napoleon, played by Academy Award® winner Joaquin Phoenix]. We also went to Paris, to the Napoleon Museum, to Malmaison. I even went to Josephine’s tomb. It was a deep immersion in that history and that period, and it was such a privilege to learn about her.”