FROM PRINCESS TO EMPRESS VANESSA KIRBY ON HER 'GREAT HONOUR' AT STARRING ROLE IN 'NAPOLEON'

As she swept onto the red, white scarlet Vivienne Westwood gown, Britain's Vanessa Kirby cemented her place in the Hollywood firmament.

- KATIE ELLIS

The actress, best known in the UK for her Bafta award-winning performance as Princess Margaret in the first two series of The Crown, looked very much at home taking her place alongside A-list star Joaquin Phoenix at the premiere of Napoleon.

Directed by Sir Ridley Scott, the historic biopic follows the rise and fall of the Corsica-born general and political leader. But at its heart is a tender, complex love story between the Emperor and his wife Joséphine, who, unable to have children with Napoleon, is ousted from the marriage but continues to be a friend and confidante until her death.

Vanessa, 35, who has also starred in Tom Cruise's Mission: Impossible series as well as the arthouse film Pieces of a Woman, for which she was Oscar-nominated, has said she enjoys "stories about women who are really open, messy and contradictory".

But playing Joséphine, which she says was a "real honour", was different.

The Empress-to-be wasn't born into Parisian society, but raised on the Caribbean island of Martinique. She moved to France as a teenager and, aged 16, married the aristocrat Alexandre de Beauharnais. They were both imprisoned in 1794, during the Revolution but, while her husband was beheaded, Joséphine was freed, becoming part of a new wave of female liberation and a leader of fashion.