The only time Joaquin Phoenix watched his own movie multiple times
Everyone has their favourite Joaquin Phoenix film—Her, Gladiator, Walk the Line—all celebrated before his transformative turn as the infamous Joker. Yet, Phoenix himself rarely watches his performances in full. That is, except for one.
In 2000, Phoenix starred alongside Mark Wahlberg in The Yards, a gripping tale of New York gang rivalry set against the lucrative backdrop of the city’s subway car repair and resale business. Unlike many of his other roles, Phoenix was deeply involved in both the pre and post-production processes, which naturally heightened his investment in the project.
When discussing the project, Phoenix told the BBC: “I don’t think I’ve ever seen another of my films all the way through. I feel really close to the film because I was involved with the project for two years before we shot. In post-production, I talked to James Gray, the director, virtually every day. I felt like I’d been involved with it for years.”
After dedicating so much time to the film, it’s no surprise that Joaquin Phoenix chose to watch The Yards with a perfectionist’s eye. While most might find themselves spotting new flaws with each viewing, Phoenix was delighted with the final product. Reflecting on the experience, he said: “It turned out exactly how I’d hoped. Sometimes, when you see a film, your favourite scenes are missing—and you understand why—but here, the scenes that I love were in the film, and it all worked.”
Phoenix was also very connected to his character Willie and said: “Any actor who says that he or she had to leave that character at home on the weekend is full of shit and pretentious. It’s more subtle than that. That’s when you see through a performance when it’s all show. There’s not one process for either getting into a role or out of it that I have found. For The Yards, it wasn’t until a year afterwards that I looked back and wondered how I did it.”
Being deeply connected to his character in The Yards likely made the experience of watching it more sentimental for Phoenix. It also highlights his dedication to the craft of acting in its purest form. Phoenix’s approach to method acting is not about over-the-top antics, like Jared Leto’s infamous stunts, but about truly inhabiting the mind and world of his characters. Rewatching such a film might stir complex emotions, as it’s not the on-screen performance you remember most, but the feelings and experiences tied to embodying that role—and those memories aren’t always easy ones.
On the contrary, Phoenix’s feelings about The Yards are likely more positive, partly due to his significant involvement in the production process. Having played a key role behind the scenes, he had a unique connection to the film’s final form. That said, it’s easy to imagine why he might not feel the same about revisiting Joker—a role so intense and psychologically taxing that watching it might dredge up the mental and emotional toll of inhabiting such a dark character.
