Far Out Meets: Armen Nahapetian on doing Joaquin Phoenix “justice”
When Armen Nahapetian received the news that he would be starring in Ari Aster’s new film Beau is Afraid as the teenage version of Joaquin Phoenix‘s character, his older brother, who cherished Phoenix’s performance in Todd Phillip’s Joker, celebrated by doing Arthur Fleck’s iconic laugh and dance while his younger sibling could only embrace Nahapetian in exalted joy.
“I was in a dream all day,” Nahapetian recently told me via Zoom. “You know when something super big happens to you, and you don’t even realise it until like the day after… I was like, ‘Oh my God, I’m really going to be in Ari’s film as a young Joaquin Phoenix.'” It was that realisation, however, that brought about considerable pressure in Nahapetian, but he vowed that instant to “do Joaquin justice”.
Beau is Afraid Ari Aster’s surreal Kafka-esque black comedy horror starring Phoenix as the titular Beau Wasserman, a polite yet anxiety-ridden man who takes a strange journey back to his hometown to attend his mother’s funeral, with whom he has had a problematic and overbearing relationship throughout his life. Alongside Phoenix and Nahapetian, the film also stars Michael Gandolfini, Patty LuPone, Zoe Lister-Jones, Amy Ryan and Nathan Lane.
While Nahapetian and Phoenix aren’t in any scenes together in Beau is Afraid, Nahapetian was still afforded the opportunity to see how the legendary actor works on set and learn how to be a performer of his calibre. “He’s always present in the moment. He’s always ready to work,” Nahapetian said. “It’s not like he goes back to the dressing room when the camera crew are setting up a new angle. Anytime that the crew is working, he’s right there, ready to go in the moment. And I learned a lot from that because I think that brings out the best acting possible if you’re always present.”
That lesson proved pivotal in Nahapetian’s performance in production. At wrap, he wrote a letter to Phoenix, saying that he hoped he had done him proud. In return, Nahapetian got the most significant reward he could have hoped for. “I talked to him on the last day of filming, and he assured me that I did great and that my original audition tapes actually inspired his version of adult Beau, so that really meant a lot to me,” he said. “His affirmations really put me at ease.”
Of course, Phoenix is not the only big cinema name attached to Beau is Afraid; its director, Ari Aster, has made waves in the horror world in recent years with the success of his films Hereditary and Midsommar. Nahapetian was already accustomed to Aster’s works, having watched some of his work with his mother, who studied film at UC Santa Cruz. However, actually working with Aster is, of course, a whole different kettle of fish.
Aster was meticulous with the preparation he wanted Nahapetian to undertake for his role in Beau is Afraid and to develop the character, though, Nahapetian said, “To develop Beau, when I first got the audition, Ari said, ‘Think of young Joaquin Phoenix in Parenthood [Ron Howard’s 1989 family comedy-drama].’ So I watched Parenthood, I took Joaquin’s character Gary, took some of his characteristics and added my own.”
Like any great actor, Nahapetian took parts of his own life and combined them with the essential parts of the script to create what he hoped to be an accurate version of young Beau. As we know from the film’s promotional material, Beau is an incredibly anxious person, and Nahapetian finds a kinship in his characteristics. “Beau is super anxious, nervous, overthinking about everything, that kind of guy,” he said. “And that’s a lot like me, and especially me at that time, because it was during Covid; I was really nervous about things, I was a germaphobe and overthought a lot.”
One scene in particular in the film was challenging for Nahapetian as a bit of a self-confessed “germaphobe” involving a kiss – in fact, both Beau and Nahapetian’s first. “For the kissing, I was so nervous,” he said. “My parents sensed this nervousness, and they tried to demonstrate different ways of kissing for me, which really did not make me feel any better.”
“The day came; I was washing my mouth with mouthwash, brushing and flossing, super nervous. I’ve never kissed anyone before. But you know, Ari said, ‘Action’, and it just happened. And afterwards, the world kept spinning, and it was awesome. I got my first kiss before my 16-year-old brother at the time, and it’s gonna be on camera forever. So I kind of worked through some of my own fears while playing through them.”
Nahapetian feels that his scene partner Julia Antonelli – who played the teen version of Parker Posey’s Elaine Bray – is responsible for helping him get through what was sure to be a nervy moment. “She’s an artist; she’s very out there and energetic so that really helps me because having a great scene partner will kind of help you get into that environment,” he said before noting that Antonelli, like Nahapetian, is strikingly similar to the character she portrays.
“She’s really great at putting me under pressure and making me kind of nervous and not knowing what to say, he added. “So it definitely helped a lot. Her being like her character and me being like my character, you know, more quiet and observant and pretty nervous, that really helped me get more into Beau.”
There’s a real excitement surrounding Aster’s new film and its main theme of the difficult relationship between an overprotective mother and her anxious son. Nahapetian admits, though, that Aster does not merely gift the meaning of the film to the audience; they have to work to figure it out themselves.
For Nahapetian, admittedly, “it’s a lot about an intense mother and son relationship, and the effect it has on a man after going through one in his childhood, and how it progresses throughout his life. Beau’s mom puts a lot of pressure on him. She is very overprotective and extremely controlling of every aspect of his life.”
To get further into character – which Nahapetian claims he “put everything into” – he asked his mother to come along to primary production with him, to “put on the headphones and watch the screen the whole time”; to “be like a hawk” over him, so that he could get used to the real-life experience of having an overbearing mother watching his every move. He hopes this inventive move will pay dividends in the final cut.
It’s an exciting prospect for the young actor to be performing in such a high-profile movie, and it is likely just the beginning of a long and fruitful career in the film industry. He’s gaining experience behind the camera, too, and is directing a skateboarding film with his brother and friends this summer.
Beyond that, Nahapetian said, “I just want longevity within my career; I want to be eighty years old, still acting, still doing what I love. And I want to work on projects with people who are passionate about what they’re doing. Because when someone’s passionate about what they’re doing, it shows within the work.”
“I just want to continue to push my limits as an actor and play interesting characters in movies that make you think,” he added. “When you watch a movie, and there’s a certain character, or like, the whole movie all together just sticks with you, and you can’t stop thinking about it… I want to associate myself with those kinds of films.”
With a big credit now under his belt, the horizon is bright for Armen Nahapetian, and it’s likely that the phone will continue to ring throughout the years, bringing joy and delight to all the Nahapetian family on many more occasions yet.
