“I don’t really want anyone to see any movie that I’m in”: Joaquin Phoenix’s issues with the economics of cinema
It would be fair to say that Joaquin Phoenix is uncomfortable with fame. Over the course of his career, he’s only starred in a handful of films which could be labelled as mainstream Hollywood fare. However, these movies inevitably led him to a place he didn’t want to be: in front of large audiences. It’s why the inherent contradiction of Phoenix – a man who doesn’t want people to see his films yet has also starred in a billion-dollar comic book movie – is so fascinating. If anything, it seems like he has a problem with the very economics of cinema, and this may explain his drive to make Joker: Folie à Deux such a confounding film.
Glancing over Phoenix’s career, it’s obvious he has little desire to star in any movie whose primary function is to make money. Yes, he took on villain duties in Gladiator and played an iconic historical figure in Napoleon. Those epics were helmed by Ridley Scott, though, so they married art and commerce perfectly. Yes, he played memorable parts in Signs and The Village, but he was part of an ensemble, and M Night Shyamalan has always had a sensibility which skews just left of the mainstream. He also portrayed legendary country musician Johnny Cash in Walk the Line, but that wasn’t a blockbuster, per se. Instead, it was a biopic with Academy Awards glory in its future.
When he isn’t tempted to sign up for something audiences may want to flock to, Phoenix tends to make unique, challenging projects with visionary indie filmmakers. He formed a fruitful partnership with James Gray, but of the four films they have made together, only We Own the Night could be described as mainstream-adjacent. He worked with Paul Thomas Anderson on The Master and Inherent Vice, but they were two of the lesser-seen films by that auteur. Phoenix’s uncompromising performances in You Were Never Really Here, C’mon C’mon, and Beau is Afraid could also never be confused with crowdpleasers, even if they set the pulses of cinephiles racing.
With this in mind, Phoenix’s seemingly contradictory quote to The Telegraph in 2018 starts to come into sharper focus. He told the outlet, “I don’t really want anyone to see any movie that I’m in. I mean, I want them to be successful so I can do more movies, but I don’t really want anyone to see them.”
While it’s easy to make fun of an actor for such an outlook, if you analyze Phoenix, it’s evident that the quote isn’t meant to be taken literally. Of course, as a working actor, he wants people to see his films, but as an artist whose inner voice is always crying out for risky, weird, esoteric fare, he also kind of wants to be left alone to do his own thing.
Perhaps he’s simply too self-conscious to deal with the notion of millions of people watching and analysing his work. In fact, this jives with something he told The A24 Podcast in 2023. Phoenix doesn’t just want audiences to avoid watching him; he also cringes at the thought of his family and friends seeing his movies.
The star confessed: “My preference is for people I know not to see anything I’m in just because I don’t want to have to go through that process. That’s the worst thing about going to a screening. Afterwards, people come up, and they have to say something. It’s always uncomfortable.”
These insights point to a man who hates the idea that movie-making is a business instead of an artistic pursuit. He’d be happy if he could just do the work and never have to talk about it or witness people consuming it. Sadly for him, though, cinema doesn’t work that way.
Indeed, it’s tempting to wonder if this contrarian attitude was a factor in Phoenix’s decision to torpedo the mass appeal of Joker, which was by far and away his most financially successful effort. That movie made over a billion dollars in 2019 and netted him a ‘Best Actor’ Oscar – but we wouldn’t be surprised if all the plaudits and box-office figures simply scared Phoenix.
When it came time to make the sequel, was it possible that he and director Todd Phillips took the opportunity to make the least mainstream Joker movie they could? After all, they turned the film into a musical which systematically tore down everything built by the first film, almost ensuring it would anger fans and struggle badly at the box office.
In the end, maybe Phoenix really didn’t want anyone to see Joker: Folie à Deux. Naturally, that would have been impossible, but as anyone who has seen the film can attest, he certainly gave it his best shot.
