Wacky Joaquin Phoenix

Good news! Joaquin Phoenix hasn’t lost his mind. He isn’t hooked on hard drugs (as far as we know). And he isn’t about to give up acting for hip-hop.

He’s only joking.

That’s my conclusion after belatedly watching the star’s notorious appearance with David Letterman on The Tonight Show last month in its entirety.

Like most of us, I had assumed the worst when I read the headlines the morning after the late night broadcast and saw brief clips of the lowlights on the news. I’m sure you don’t need me to tell you Phoenix sat down opposite Letterman sporting a bushy black beard, out of control hair and dark glasses. The eccentric look was reflected in his interview: his answers were brief to non-existent, he stumbled through his words and failed to identify his Two Lovers costar Gwyneth Paltrow when Dave invited him to. He even claimed surprise when Letterman mentioned Two Lovers was based on a story by Fyodor Dostoyevski.

It was a bizarre episode and great TV. Letterman seemed energized to have such a non-compliant guest, firing off sarcastic one-liners and put-downs couched among the usual insincere compliments about the actor and his work.

Watching the interview in full on YouTube my own sympathies switched from the chat show host to his guest. Letterman’s asinine brand of questioning (“How’s the beard working for you?”) is hardly conducive to great conversation, and if Dave is only pretending not to know Phoenix’s “beautiful” costar, why should Joaquin help him out?

Even so, I don’t believe this was just a case of a recalcitrant guest refusing to play ball. Perhaps it’s Joaquin’s physical resemblance to the hirsute Borat and Religulous director Larry Charles that makes me suspicious (Charles also favours a ZZ Top beard).

Watch closely, you’ll see that two or three times Phoenix has to suppress a smile when Letterman lets fly with a zinger. If he was really as out of it as some people reckon I think it’s fair to assume he wouldn’t be in on the joke, or capable of suppressing of his laughter.

Look, too, at the final moments of the interview. Phoenix rises to leave, exchanges a cursory handshake with his host and walks off. Then, after a couple of steps, he turns back to Letterman, and with his back to camera removes his dark glasses and shakes hands again, this time holding it for much longer. The difference is telling. It’s as if for Phoenix, the scene finished after he walked away the first time, and after an invisible “cut” he returned to thank and congratulate his costar for playing along.

Further investigation reveals that Joaquin’s brother in law, Casey Affleck (who is married to Summer Phoenix), was in the wings that night and recording the episode on his own digital camera. Affleck was there too, camera in hand, a couple of nights later, when Phoenix appeared four hours late at a club, gave a reportedly lackluster performance of three or four hip hop songs, and then assaulted a heckler. Officially Affleck is directing a documentary about Joaquin’s fledgling singing career, but I’ll wager it’s actually a mockumentary about celebrity culture. News that Joaquin has selected the ridiculous “Young Pheezy” as his hip-hop name surely supports this hypothesis.

It’s intriguing to note that Affleck and Phoenix both have older brothers who became big stars in their youth. Both Ben Affleck and River Phoenix gained plenty from the attention, and lost a lot too. It’s too simplistic to blame the media for River Phoenix’s death, but it would be understandable if his younger sibling treated celebrity with suspicion and detachment. Certainly neither Joaquin, his sister Summer nor her husband Casey has shown much interest in going the blockbuster route to secure greater fame and fortune.

The most established and successful of the three – and the most gifted – Joaquin has enjoyed a considerable degree of mainstream success, most notably with his Oscar-nominated performances in Gladiator and Walk the Line, but his choices reflect his social conscience and artistic integrity more than ego or ambition. They include two films with M Night Shyamalan (Signs and The Village), three with James Gray (The Yards, We Own the Night and Two Lovers), plus Quills, Hotel Rwanda, It’s All About Love and Reservation Road. Not all of them have worked, but you have to respect the commitment, Phoenix’s willingness to play wounded, troubled characters, and the compassion he brings to them. No can play hurt and confused as keenly as Joaquin.

How the “real” Joaquin Phoenix fits into this is hard to say, he’s never been the most forthcoming of interviewees, but he denies that he’s instigating a hoax. He may even believe this. His Deep Method approach to acting is well known – he asks the crew to address him by his character name, and according to Gray he was punched for real in We Own the Night, at his own insistence.

But it’s as hard to imagine Phoenix boasting about the million dollars he has in his bank account – as he was reported to have done in the recent nightclub incident – as it is to imagine him picking the name “Young Pheezy” with a straight face. (“Joaquin” was his choice too, of course, when he changed the name “Leaf” his Children Of God parents gave to him.) Come to that, would Joaquin Phoenix ever sign on to be the subject of a fly-on-the-wall documentary, brother-in-law or no?

It just doesn’t ring true.

Now, whether this mockumentary (if that’s what it turns out to be) will be genuinely funny a la “Borat”, or just a colossal embarrassment for everyone concerned only time will tell. For now, let’s try not to jump to any conclusions, and remind ourselves we’re dealing with an astounding actor here, one of the most honest and the bravest of his generation.

Tom Charity
tom.charity@lovefilm.com