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Two Lovers Director James Gray Says Goodbye to Joaquin Phoenix
Joaquin Phoenix announced his retirement recently, and though I was profoundly disappointed, I can’t say I was surprised. Joaquin is best described as a mercurial person, so there’s a chance he might yet change his mind (selfishly, I hope he does). But his decision is consistent with the person he is and was and always will be.
Joaquin doesn’t care about anything but the work, and even then he cares only about process—never the product (he doesn’t even watch his own movies). The young man gave acting everything he had. Perhaps he just ran out of gas. I know now how hard it is to find a true original like him, and that for a time I simply got lucky.
I first met Joaquin in 1997, on a cold winter night in New York. It was a brutal evening after a brutal day, and I’d had nothing less than a brutal week trying to cast my film, The Yards
The camera doesn’t lie, or so they say (though others have said it lies constantly, and both are right), but what it does above all else is magnify. If you think it, you can think it a whole lot on the big screen and you don’t have to say a word. If you don’t care, we can see that you don’t, 20 feet high. It’s a heightened reality, but necessarily a more intimate one, and if you’re at war with yourself, the medium tends to reward you. After only a few moments of conversation, it was immediately clear to me that Joaquin was that and many other things. He was conflicted, he was bright and he was hungry. Something else was obvious: Joaquin had danger. I wasn’t scared of him, but I was scared of what he might do—most of all to himself. I had to work with him as soon as possible.
Looking back on our first collaboration, I’m not sure we actually collaborated all that much. I seem to remember a whole lot of torment and angst and yelling and screaming. But I also remember consistently being amazed by the emotional depth of the then-24-year-old. I loved his feral unpredictability; he seemed ready to explode at any minute.
He was hard on himself—a true perfectionist—though just as often, his fury was directed at me. I didn’t care. We had one thing in common and that was a total commitment to the work. We will no doubt fail, we told each other over and over again, but at least we will fail giving it everything we have. He was untrained and undisciplined, usually requiring multiple takes and a great deal of coaching. So did I.
The Yards now feels like the first round of a boxing match in which neither fighter seems ready to engage. Both dance around the ring at the sound of the bell, sizing each other up, waiting for the real battle to begin. What are the strengths of my opponent? The weaknesses? What terrible surprises might be in store?
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COMMENTS | POST A COMMENT 
- Comment by SDVisitor on 3/04/09 at 10:28 pm
Yes, we too hope that he changes his mind. But, you know, creative people need meaningful breaks more often than us to enrich their lives with poignant emotions so that they can rejuvenate and come back with a bang. It has happened with writers, performers, actors, and film-makers. I am sure this is going to happen with Joaquin too.
- Comment by denver car accident lawyers on 6/02/09 at 9:39 am
The key trait of an actor that distinguishes him from others is his ability to portray real life in reel life! Congratulations to Joaquin Phoenix that he was able to do that and hope he can pass on this talent to other budding or established Hollywood celebrities.
- Comment by doris on 7/11/09 at 9:29 am
Thanks for sharing your indepth opinion on JP. We can only phantom the why’s. I know that whatever he feels necessary he will do, this is liking climbing sometimes you reach the apex of your expectations. He obviously has completed his journey and now must move on, or what? I don’t want to dismiss for him his first love, and wish for him the best.
I will truly will miss his sexuality in the all the roles he performed in, his beauty, his depth. Should any of the negative comments on his physical status be true, I hope and pray those in power and experience in this area can intervene and further enlighten his cloud. L, P and H a true admirer of this fantastic guy.
This story was published in the Winter 2009 MovieMaker Magazine. The headline was:
Dream Team/Indie auteur laments the retirement of his longtime leading man (and selfishly hopes that Two Lovers won’t be the last we see of that Joaquin Phoenix fella)
Order this issue | Subscribe to MM
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