Joaquin Phoenix’s unlikely pick for his most important role: “Dishonesty is so ugly on film”
Joaquin Phoenix is one of those actors everybody has an opinion about.
He’s delivered some dynamite performances across his lengthy career. From early hits like Parenthood to career-defining turns in Her and The Master, to the monumental carry-job he did on Beau Is Afraid, there’s no denying that the man has talent.
There are some people who would disagree with a few of his career choices, however. As Arthur Fleck in Joker, Phoenix split the movie world clean down the middle. Half the viewers agreed that he had given a masterful turn as a damaged individual who takes his grievances with society too far, while others argued that he gave a voice to a dangerous subsection of aggrieved men, who would use his example to justify their own horrendous opinions. This discourse didn’t get any easier to navigate upon the release of the film’s sequel, the disastrously received Folie à Deux.
Phoenix himself is aware of how polarising he can be. In his opinion, he is at his best when he follows a specific kind of acting technique. “I just want to be open and receptive to what’s happening in the moment, and I don’t want to force anything,” he told Interview magazine.
He explained, “Dishonesty is so ugly on film. You just act, and it’s so ugly, and I don’t want to do that… They tell you to memorise your lines, follow your light, and hit your marks. Those are the three things that you shouldn’t do. You should not learn your lines, you should not hit your mark, and you should never follow your light. Find your light—that’s my opinion.
When asked how he realised that he felt this way about his profession, Phoenix revealed a film that brought him clarity. “I’m Still Here just made me really solidify what I felt about the kind of acting that I wanted to experience,” he highlighted, adding, “I’d done a run of movies around Walk the Line, and I just didn’t want to do that kind of acting anymore.”
Released in 2010, I’m Still Here has Phoenix playing a version of himself who ‘retires’ from acting to pursue a career as a musician. The film is best remembered for the bizarre marketing campaign the star embarked upon to promote it. He stayed in character during interviews, assuring people that this mockumentary was the truth and that he was genuinely leaving Hollywood behind. This culminated in an infamous appearance on The Late Show with David Letterman, for which Phoenix has since apologised.
Prior to I’m Still Here, Phoenix appeared in a series of conventional big-screen dramas. There’s Walk the Line, in which he played Johnny Cash, Gladiator, and even Disney’s Brother Bear. This was the period of his career he started to take more risks and establish himself as someone whose next move you could never predict. This is when he truly became the divisive figure he is today, for better or for worse.
Whatever you make of Phoenix and his movies, it’s undeniably been fascinating to watch the various twists and turns he’s taken. He could have easily stuck to the cushy gigs he’d been getting earlier in his career, but he decided to follow his own creative vision, and that should always be commended.
