In October 2008, Joaquin Phoenix retired from acting to pursue a career as a rapper. The decision took many by surprise.
He grew a heavy, bushy beard and took to wearing oversized sunglasses at all times.
One bad day. That’s all it takes.
Casey Affleck, his then brother-in-law, found the decision fascinating and decided to document Phoenix’s journey from actor to rapper.
Phoenix began performing in public, but his ‘rapping’ wasn’t met with much enthusiasm.
In March 2009, he was heckled while performing in a Miami club. Phoenix jumped off the stage and attacked the heckler.
Then there were reports of him snorting cocaine, calling prostitutes, and being extremely rude to his staff.
Later, in a bizarre interview with David Letterman[1], his desire to pursue rapping was met with laughter from both Letterman and the audience. Joaquin was not impressed. “Is this a joke?” he mumbled.
Letterman ripped into Phoenix, mocking him till kingdom come, much to the delight of the audience.
Chicago-based psychiatrist Paul Dobransky posited that Phoenix was mentally ill. “There is something wrong, and it’s beyond drug abuse.”
Susan Patricola, Phoenix’s publicist, took umbrage with Dobransky’s comments.
“How absolutely inappropriate for a doctor who has no personal interaction or relationship with someone to diagnose them. And to do so in a public forum. Hope they spelled his name right. Another 15-minute ‘expert’ is born!”
During the 2009 Academy Awards, Ben Stiller poked fun at Phoenix’s dishevelled look by dressing up as Phoenix and mockingly announcing “I just want to retire from being the funny guy, that’s all.” The bit drew huge laughs from the audience.
All this while, Casey Affleck and his crew were following Phoenix’s descent.
“It ended up being more and more fascinating, more and more things happened that were both in the public spectacle and a very private internal implosion that I got to witness.”
And later in 2010, when the “documentary,” I’m Still Here came out, Affleck[2]and Phoenix[3] finally fessed up – it was all a massive, elaborate hoax.
The idea behind the movie was to “explore celebrity, and explore the relationship between the media and the consumers and the celebrities themselves.”
Affleck made his point on Jay Leno’s talk show when he pointed out that
There had been no concern from the film industry about the apparent breakdown of a man who only three years before was nominated for an Oscar.
The movie comes out; critics say, ‘This is crazy, this is disturbing, this is sick’. But while it’s happening, people were happy just to mock him and make fun of him.
Of the many fascinating elements of this story, what I’m most intrigued by is Phoenix’s commitment.
He carried out the charade for almost two years, staying ‘in character’ every single time he appeared in public.
Essentially, Phoenix retired from acting to act in a movie. He was acting for two whole years. Now that’s intense.
He later apologised to Letterman, who wasn’t in on the joke.[4]
That Joaquin, I tell you, he’s such a Joker.
Footnotes
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