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<\/p>\nAs long as Hollywood has been making films, it has cast on-screen couples with dubious age gaps.<\/p>\n
And Ridley Scott’s latest \u00a3160 million epic, Napoleon, is no exception, with the British director casting 49-year-old Joaquin Phoenix as the French emperor opposite 35-year-old Vanessa Kirby as his lover Josephine.<\/p>\n
The 14-year difference is all the more remarkable as, in reality, Napoleon was six years younger than the woman who became his wife. When they met, Josephine was already a widow \u2013 her first husband having been guillotined in the French Revolution \u2013 and a mother of two. Indeed, when they wed they lied about their ages, Josephine knocking four years off and Napoleon adding 18 months, so they would appear roughly the same age on the marriage certificate.<\/p>\n
But Scott has gone even further in a film that has been widely criticised for its historical inaccuracies \u2013 such as falsely showing the Frenchman blowing the top off the Pyramids.<\/p>\n
The age gap could have been wider still as Killing Eve star Jodie Comer was originally attached to the role \u2013 and she is another five years younger than Ms Kirby.<\/p>\n
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Joaquin Phoenix, 49 and Vanessa Kirby, 36 play Napoleon and his wife Josephine in Ridley Scott’s latest epic, despite the fact that the French emperor was six years younger than the woman he married<\/p>\n
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Audrey Hepburn was 34 when she starred opposite Cary Grant, then 59 in Charade<\/p>\n
Alexandra Bowles, assistant editor at The Historians magazine, tweeted: ‘The age gap thing is such a problem… [It] was central to their dynamic (ie his need for heirs & his insecurities about her sexual experience vs his lack of). If Josephine had been the same age as him she’d likely have been able to have kids.’<\/p>\n
The couple’s inability to produce heirs led to their ultimate divorce.<\/p>\n
Another fan posted: ‘This could’ve been a great chance to cast age accurate actors to break the mould in Hollywood as well as to highlight one of the rare historical relationships where the wife is older.’<\/p>\n
The film industry’s penchant for casting young actresses as the lovers of older leading men dates back decades. Audrey Hepburn was just 28 when she starred opposite 58-year-old Fred Astaire in Funny Face \u2013 a 30-year difference \u2013 and was 34 when she appeared with Cary Grant, then 59, in Charade.<\/p>\n
Similarly, Debbie Reynolds was just 19 when she had to kiss Gene Kelly, 39, while filming Singin’ In The Rain. She later said she ‘screeched’ as it was the first time she had ever been ‘French-kissed’.<\/p>\n
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Debbie Reynolds was just 19 when she had to kiss Gene Kelly, 39, while filming Singin’ In The Rain<\/p>\n
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In 1999, Catherine Zeta-Jones, 29, was cast opposite Sean Connery, 68, in Entrapment, although she is married to Michael Douglas who is 25 years her senior<\/p>\n
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A 60-year-old Jack Nicholson professed his love for Helen Hunt’s 34-year-old waitress in As Good As It Gets<\/p>\n
Nothing changed by the 1990s. Demi Moore was 30 when she was cast opposite Robert Redford, then 56, in Indecent Proposal, and a 60-year-old Jack Nicholson professed his love for Helen Hunt’s 34-year-old waitress in As Good As It Gets.<\/p>\n
In 1999, Catherine Zeta-Jones, 29, was cast opposite Sean Connery, 68, in Entrapment. Although in real life, the actress is married to Michael Douglas, 25 years her senior.<\/p>\n
Following a backlash against gender stereotypes in the wake of the MeToo movement, some films have turned the age gap on its head. Dame Emma Thompson was 62 when she starred opposite love interest Daryl McCormack, 29, in last year’s acclaimed film Good Luck To You, Leo Grande.<\/p>\n