What was the first movie to star actor Joaquin Phoenix?
Even though he didn’t come from an acting family, it’s clear that Joaquin Phoenix and his siblings were all bitten very early on by the bug after every single one of them went on to ply their trade as performers, a sentiment that even applies through marriage.
The third of five children, Phoenix’s older brother River was singled out as having the potential to be one of his generation’s finest actors from the second he burst onto the scene. Even though he tragically died at the age of only 23, that might still be true, especially when a star of Leonardo DiCaprio’s magnitude considers him to be a formative influence.
Older sister Rain has a filmography of her own that spans four decades, younger sister Liberty made a couple of screen appearances in the 1980s before focusing her attentions elsewhere, youngest sibling Summer worked sporadically for most of her life in film and television and was married to Casey Affleck for over a decade, with Joaquin having been with fellow actor Rooney Mara since 2016.
With an Academy Award win to his name from four nominations and a reputation for being an immensely dedicated and reliably immersive thespian, Phoenix has delivered standout performances in everything from Ridley Scott’s Gladiator and Spike Jonze’s Her to Ari Aster’s Beau Is Afraid and his Oscar-winning turn in Todd Phillips’ Joker.
The sequel, Folie à Deux, may have backfired spectacularly, but Joker 2 is hardly going to derail his career, even if it didn’t come at a great time following the backlash to greet his abrupt exit from Todd Haynes’ untitled romance that was right on the cusp of shooting when Phoenix, who originated the project, upped sticks and walked away.
Born as Joaquin Bottom and spending the early part of his life going by Leaf Phoenix, it’s been a long and winding road to the summit of Hollywood. However, it would be fair to say the star has earned his stripes as one of the most gifted talents in the business, with more than 40 years having passed since he made his screen debut.
So, what was Joaquin Phoenix’s first movie?
The first theatrically-released credit of Phoenix’s career came when he played the Star Wars-obsessed 12-year-old Max Graham in director Harry Winer’s sci-fi comedy SpaceCamp. He was credited as Leaf in the film, which didn’t get his big screen endeavours off to the best start when it bombed at the box office.
That said, there might have been a very good reason for audiences showing no interest in a light-hearted and frivolous romp about four teenagers and an astronaut being accidentally shot into space after the studio persevered with its plans and decided five months after the tragic Challenger incident was the ideal time to roll out the movie.
Phoenix was already familiar with the rigours of being on set by that point, with his screen debut coming four years earlier on an episode of Seven Brides for Seven Brothers, which he followed with one-episode guest spots in several popular shows, including The Fall Guy, Murder, She Wrote, and Hill Street Blues.
SpaceCamp wasn’t the first feature-length undertaking of his career, either, a distinction that fell to Kid’s Don’t Tell, a CBS docudrama about child molestation that aired in March 1985. Needless to say, it was a million miles away from the light-hearted antics that immediately followed, placing his first two movie productions at opposite ends of the tonal spectrum.
