Truly, I was going to cover Joaquin Phoenix’s Interview Magazine profile when it first came out, but every time I went to Interview’s site that week, it was down. So I guess I just sort of forgot about it, my bad. But if you’d like to spend a very pleasant 10 minutes of your time, please read the full piece – Joaquin was interviewed by Will Ferrell, and it’s awkward and funny and a surprisingly good read.
Joaquin is really leaning into his “socially awkward” persona these days. It feels like he’s in a different headspace right now though – like, in past years, I would genuinely have worries about whether he was too emotionally fragile to really function in the world. But it seems like getting together with Rooney Mara has really helped him. They can be aloof together, and he honestly just seems vaguely happy now that he has a live-in girlfriend. Which brings me to this Page Six piece called “Inside Joaquin Phoenix’s Life As Recluse.” It’s sort of concern-trolly, especially since Joaquin has always been a genuinely offbeat guy. You can read the full piece here. Some highlights:
He was super-uncomfortable at his “You Were Never Really Here” premiere: When he finally came in, sporting a grizzled beard and silver-tinged man bun, Joaquin Phoenix retreated to a shadowy corner with actor pal John C. Reilly and two other scruffy dudes. “He’s really outside his comfort zone tonight,” observed a longtime Phoenix friend. “And his comfort zone doesn’t go too far to begin with.”
This year is going to be a torment for him: Although he’s been nominated for three Oscars over the years, Phoenix has always seemed adrift — even miserable — in the trappings of Hollywood. (He once called the awards “total, utter bulls – – t.”) And some are saying Hollywood’s most tortured star has a year of torment on the horizon. Besides “You Were Never Really Here,” Phoenix has three other films slated: playing a paraplegic in “Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot,” a traumatized assassin in “The Sisters Brothers” and Jesus Christ in “Mary Magdalene” (which co-stars Mara and is looking for a new distributor since the Weinstein Company went bankrupt).
A producer friend talks about Joaquin’s damage: “The reason he’s good at playing traumatized is that he was traumatized. He grew up . . . in a cult. His brother died in front of him. None of that presupposes someone who’s going to turn out normal. He’s better at being a character than being himself. He really thinks he’s boring. Hiding is just a natural state for him,” added the producer.
He doesn’t live the LA Life: Phoenix eschews LA’s favored lifestyle: he reportedly doesn’t hike, go to the beach or hit major restaurants — preferring a strict vegan diet of vegetables from his own garden. “His circle of friends is as tight as he can keep it,” adds the friend. “Not a lot of people are going to get him . . . [and] he’s good with that.”
His relationship with Rooney: “They’re meant for each other,” said the friend. “Both [are] shy homebodies, both loathe press.” When the two have ventured out, they’ve been spotted at vegan restaurants and a colonics spa.
He really is that weird: “God forbid he gets an Oscar this year,” said a publicity exec who has worked with Phoenix. “He may not make it to the stage. Everyone wonders, ‘Is he really that sensitive — or does he just want you to think he’s weird?’ You’ll always be confused about him. Which actually is kind of weird.”
This piece just reads as kind of a standard-issue reintroduction to Joaquin by some awards-season publicist. It feels like someone – not Joaquin – is going to be pushing him for an Oscar campaign for at least one of his upcoming films. Hell, it might happen. He’s been nominated before and he’s mostly refused to campaign, although I remember that time someone convinced him to go on Oprah to promote Walk the Line and he was basically so nervous and scared that he became a hermit crab. Here’s my advice to the Hollywood publicists trying to get Joaquin out of his shell: just ask him to do a lot of print interviews. He’ll probably be easier to “manage” when he’s one-on-one in interviews. Don’t expect him to do Ellen or Kimmel. He’ll HATE that. And ask Rooney to help out – they can look morose and aloof together on every red carpet. I’m actually looking forward to that.
Photos courtesy of Interview Magazine, WENN.
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