Joaquin Pheonix on Letterman

I'm more of a Leno guy, but I do appreciate some of Dave's finer moments. Some of his jabs in this interview are priceless.

I'm convinced that this gimmick of Joaquin's is a running gag for an upcoming role. I had heard somewhere that it is a "mockumentary" that wouldn't be entirely new, but definitely creative. Seems to be denied by his representatives publicly, but I'm not buying it at this point.

Hopefully this is a gimmick as if it is not, this is a disturbed transition.

Could be a stunt. Letterman & Paul were kind of taking up for him the other night so, maybe they found out. The guy is one of the best actors there currently is (or used to be as the case may be) so, it wouldn't be too tough for him to do.
I always thought him a bit strange but devoting his life to being a Rap artist seems a little much even for him.

Letterman rocks. I saw that interview, and Joaquin may be pulling a stunt but I very much believe if he is, Letterman wasn't in on it at the time of the interview.

Joaquin is one of those actors I typically go out of my way to not read about or see interviewed. Much like Tom Cruise, for me. I think Joaquin's a great actor and have enjoyed almost all of his work. But he's just to distractingly weird in real life. It becomes all I can think about when I see him in a movie.

I just want to be entertained by your basic Hollywood types. The less I know about them, the better. Unless they're lousy actors anyway. Then their weirdness is the entertainment.

I just think he was coming down from a very bad trip in the limo...but that's just me....

Just watched it. It definetly seems to me this is all a joke. Ide hope that if he were actually out of it, that his publicist wouldnt let him go on interveiws.

Sure looks like he's under the influence of tranquilizers to me, probably mixed with something else. He kept doing something with his mouth. We all know how his brother went out.

Peace

Originally posted by chissler

I'm more of a Leno guy, but I do appreciate some of Dave's finer moments. Some of his jabs in this interview are priceless.

I'm convinced that this gimmick of Joaquin's is a running gag for an upcoming role. I had heard somewhere that it is a "mockumentary" that wouldn't be entirely new, but definitely creative. Seems to be denied by his representatives publicly, but I'm not buying it at this point.

Hopefully this is a gimmick as if it is not, this is a disturbed transition.

I seriously hate to break it to you guys but this is no gag, this is no joke and what you are witnessing is an extremely broken man.

You can tell by his lack of body care hes lost control, the fact he is wearing huge sun glasses in a well lit study highlights the possibility that he is high out of his god damn mind. Additionally, visibly through the whole clip he is rubbing his hands together, which is what most junkies will do cause they cant keep still.

To understand how this is no joke, just look at his face when letterman takes jabs, he is genuinely confused, and at times appears to have no idea what is going on, completely missing what is being said. Other times you'll notice by either his reaction or his comment afterwards that he did infact understand the jab towards him, and shortly after you will notice him look down with a look of disgust.

The best evidence of my entire claim is in the final closing comments, letterman jokes about him "not being with them tonight", he stutters and stammers out something to the effect of "hes funny" and then you notice his head goes down in shame, he looks like an animal in corner being poked and prodded by a mass of predators. And I really think he felt that way while he was being filmed in that clip.

His brothers death has messed him up people, and if you loved him, you've lost him. He's officially checked out.

i watched this the other day and thought it was fantastic. i don't think he is doing this as a gag at all. i think he is off his meds or on some other stuff. he is hidden and confused. he is unkempt and uncomfortable...
dave was awesome though...

king9072, you make some great points that are certainly worth considering.

But the fact remains that this guy is an oscar-nominated actor who has tremendous talent. It is not beyond him to pull this off. It's not a stretch to say that he could have easily researched this and is pulling off the small movements, non-verbals, etc. to make it believable.

I fear it is legit, but I truly hope it is not.

Hey Chis, Have you ever seen this old clip?

Crispin Glover, from 1987.
Sort of a precedent for unusual behavior.
I saw this the night it aired, Joaquin's performance reminded me of that appearance. One of the weirdest things I've ever seen.



then he tried to explain it on another episode. As Dave makes fun of him at will
(sound level is very low on this one).



[edit on 26-2-2009 by spacedoubt]

Originally posted by chissler
king9072, you make some great points that are certainly worth considering.

But the fact remains that this guy is an oscar-nominated actor who has tremendous talent. It is not beyond him to pull this off. It's not a stretch to say that he could have easily researched this and is pulling off the small movements, non-verbals, etc. to make it believable.

I fear it is legit, but I truly hope it is not.

Theres a large difference, I feel that Sacha Baron Cohen did amazing acting staying in character through everything he did as Borat, but this is totally different.

You'll notice that Borat, whether he was pretending to 'understand' the questions he was being asked or NOT, he still aknowledged there was communication.

The Pheonix we see in this clip, is not the award winning actor you know and love. It is just a shell, this person is highly dilusional thanks to excessive drug use, and I dont think that can really be debated seeing the way he is acting. it is no coincidence that he acts like this after his brother died. He genuinely appears confused, is unaware of whats going on, and when he is jabbed, his mind is so fried he cannot even craft a rebuttle, just some mumbling.

Sorry guys.

[edit on 26-2-2009 by king9072]

Unless you know him personally, you're really only speaking off of the same material as the rest of us. And the content on hand is certainly a matter of opinion.

I work every day with some of the characteristics that you're describing and if someone pays close enough attention to the smallest of details, it can be faked.

You continue to reference the death of River Phoenix. Why now, after all of these years, is it suddenly such a debilitating fact of his life?

I'm still going with the "he's totally baked" explanation...

The example of Crispin is easy...it's apparent there's a costume there... Joaquin looks like a stoner whose people tried to dress him up...but couldn't convince him of a shave...

Originally posted by chissler
Unless you know him personally, you're really only speaking off of the same material as the rest of us. And the content on hand is certainly a matter of opinion.

I work every day with some of the characteristics that you're describing and if someone pays close enough attention to the smallest of details, it can be faked.

You continue to reference the death of River Phoenix. Why now, after all of these years, is it suddenly such a debilitating fact of his life?

Wow, ok, you know what's weird I am totally oblivious, for some retarded reason I thought I remembered his death as being recent like 2 years ago. So this all seemed to fall into place. But your right, hes been dead for 15 years, so is likely not the cause of this craziness.

But despite all that, I still stick to my original opinion on the video. He is clearly heavily intoxicated, if this turns out to all be a joke then he deserves BEST ACTOR EVER award.

Search youtube for his rap, he appears at some Vegas club, makes an ass of himself then falls of the stage.