Stills from the movie Joker
Jacqueline (left) with his mother and his great brother, Rivan Phoenix (right).
When Jacquin was a child, the family lived a typical hippie life.
"I'm Still Here" poster
Stills from Gladiator
Stills from "Walking with the Song"
Wearing the same canvas shoes, Jacquin appears in street photography, on the red carpet and even at awards ceremonies.
When the conclusion that "there will be no clowns after Heath Ledger" was almost indisputable, Joaquin Phoenix, one of the best actors of the era, broke the spell.
At the 76th Venice Film Festival, "Joker" won the Golden Lion Award for Best Picture in the main competition section, and director Todd Phillips was full of praise for Jacqueline Phoenix in his speech, saying that he was the fiercest, smartest, most open-minded lion with incredible talent. The media commented that "Phoenix was the primary driving force behind making Joker such an avant-garde work under the Hollywood comic book industry." ”
At the Toronto International Film Festival on September 9, local time, Jacqueline was awarded this year's Actor Honor Award by the Organizing Committee. The organizing committee said: "For more than three decades, he has injected a penetrating sense of reality into each role."
I just want to play a complex grey domain role
The same group of actors Mark Malone said that on the set, Joaquin has been immersed in the shooting state, and he is like a passerby A watching from the side, and he has no chance to talk to him.
From Mark Hamill to Jack Nicholson to Heath Ledger, all give memorable classic performances to the funniest and most twisted Joker characters in superhero movies.
The new "Joker" is independent of the DC Universe and is set in Gotham City in 1981, where Arthur Flake, played by Jacquin Phoenix, lives with his mother, lives in near poverty, and can only survive by being a clown. Wanting to be an independent comedian but suffering from a pathologically uncontrolled laugh made him laugh as soon as he stepped on stage. When the harsh reality ensued, the most terrifying villain in history finally stood up.
The initial confirmation that Jacquin would take on the role of the Joker surprised countless fans, after all, he had never had much interest in commercial films and had refused to star in Marvel's "Doctor Strange". It took Joaquin four months to convince Joaquin to star, and Jecquin's condition was: "I just want to play a complex flesh-and-blood gray field role, not a black-and-white cartoon villain"; "This is not just a realistic character study, but also a cautionary prophecy that goes deep into human nature." ”
To play the Joker, Jacquin lost 24 kilograms and had well-defined ribs to help him make an impact on a psychological level, and he began to go crazy. It's even hard for audiences to recognize at the Venice Film Festival that the slightly bloated actor is the clown actor. He would spend months practicing clown laughter at home, flipping through a lot of psychology books, and slowly digging into his own clown in the empty diary that director Todd gave him with words and pictures.
"Sometimes you feel like you're in a strong connection with him (the Joker), but sometimes you're ostracized by him. I love challenging the audience, challenging myself to explore such a character. Characters like this are rare in any movie, especially in superhero movies. After such exhausting preparation and interpretation, Someone asked Jacquin what he thought of the expectations from comic fans: "I don't care about this at all. ”
As a child, acting is like playing
Unlike the children of ordinary families, Jacquin's parents did not trust school education, and from an early age, their brothers and sisters followed their parents to migrate and wander.
Born in 1974 in San Juan, Puerto Rico, usa, Jacquin was the third of five children in the family, born an invisible rabbit-lip child, and still has a scar next to him.
The hippie parents, who met and fell in love on the hike, gave the five siblings very literary names: River, Rain, Summer, Liberty, and Leaf (Jacquin's original name). The family had joined and become missionaries to a fanatical religious cult called the Sons of God, and had all quit the church after being disappointed.
The family then took turns to settle in Los Angeles, and to celebrate the family's "rebirth," they changed their surname to Phoenix.
In order to make a living, the siblings became street performers, and at the age of 6, Jacquin was taken to the talent agency by his mother.
This made Jacquin and the other siblings develop a rebellious and freedom-loving personality, and also left traces of loneliness and hesitation on them.
Jacqueline once said, "We're always singing or playing music, and we're always encouraged to express ourselves." When you're a kid, acting is like a way of playing. It's really exciting when you're encouraged to use your imagination and you have the opportunity and environment to express yourself. I always enjoyed expressing myself... We used to live at the bottom of the valley. Station wagons are always scrapped at the time of performance. But I love the way you perform — you never know what new experience you're going to take on or if you have the ability to do it. It was a rewarding experience. ”
Growing up, he didn't compete with him
Someone once said that Jacquin had been living in the shadow of his brother Revan—first a dazzling shadow, then a shadow of death.
Jacquin's eldest brother, Ravan Phoenix, was named "the talented actor who could dominate the entire 1990s" and was nominated for the Oscar for Best Supporting Actor before he was 19 years old. At the age of 23, with "My Own Idaho" won the Best Actor Award at the Venice Film Festival, Leonardo was able to star in "Heart Fever" and "Edge Diary" because of his similarity with Revan. Since Revan's debut, the entire family has lived on his income. With the aura of his brother, Jacquin entered the film world at the age of 12 and appeared in the movie "Space Adventure", but also because of the existence of his brother, Jacquin could only get some supporting roles.
Also 23 years old, on Halloween night in 1993, Rivan ended filming of "Black Blood" and died suddenly of a drug overdose in front of Johnny Depp's bar "Viper House", and a drunken Jacquin dragged his brother to call emergency calls. Hollywood's brightest star fell, after which his friend Depp closed the "Viper House", Keanu Reeves also began to quit drugs, and the contracted "Night Interview with the Vampire" was replaced by Christian Slater.
Not long ago, when promoting the new film "Once Upon a Time in Hollywood", Leonardo DiCaprio said that at that time he was trying to become a teen star, And Rivan Phoenix was his idol, and leonardo was on the scene on the day of Revan's accidental death, still expecting a chance to shake hands with him.
His brother's death devastated Jacquin. In the years that followed, he only intermittently played supporting roles in unpopular films such as Nicole Kidman's film "Whatever It Takes."
Witnessing the death of a fish in childhood made Rivan a lifelong vegetarian, refusing to appear in movies until he replaced it with an imitation cowhide belt because he wanted to wear a belt, yearning for nature, loving music, and hating Vanity Fair, these habits of Revan were completely preserved in Jacquin, like some kind of continuation.
Decades later, Jacquin still rarely mentions his brother, but he is always compared to his brother, and his answer is always: "We are a team, no matter who is playing a role, it is great." Growing up, we didn't compete for this storyline. ”
Acting is a pure anxiety, but I love that anxiety
Jacqueline once said in an interview that he was looking for good roles, whimsy and a passionate director, and he would be interested if all of the above could be in a film at the same time. And these characters all bear some resemblance to his own personality and experience.
When asked why Lynn Ramsey, the director of You've Never Been Here, invited Joaquin Phoenix, who had never met, to play, she replied, "Because he's the best actor in the world!" ”
In 2000, 26-year-old Jacqueline Phoenix starred in Ridley Scott's Gladiator, in which he was an abominable tyrant with a complicated heart. At the Oscars the following year, the film won the Best Picture Award for "Crouching Tiger, Hidden Dragon" and "Never Compromise", and it was also with this film that Joaquin who won the Oscar nomination for Best Supporting Actor that year.
Since then, Joaquin's career as an actor has never left an emotionally charged and paranoid role. In 2005' Walk with The Song, he played American pop legend Johnny Cash and was nominated numerous times. He is a typical method actor, and every time he interprets the role, he will fall into great anxiety and sweat constantly, and the staff will have to pad a tissue on his back, otherwise the sweat will drip from the costume. He once said that acting "is a pure anxiety." I love this anxiety. ”
If he were to make the list of the most maverick actors in Hollywood, Joaquin would definitely be at the forefront, and his madness would be almost as famous as his acting skills.
In 2008, at the premiere of "Two Lovers", Jacquin suddenly announced his retirement and switched to a rapper. After that, he was blessed with a blessed body, untrimmed edges, wearing inexplicably large sunglasses, and no one could understand his lyrics. He was four hours late at the concert and fought with fans, but he was incoherent on the talk show, and for a while the entire entertainment industry was his negative news.
This is when he returns with a pseudo-documentary "I'm Still Here, directed by his brother-in-law Cassie Affleck," which tells the story of an artist's choices at a crossroads in his life and his quest for courage and creativity. Joaquin won the Best Actor award at the Cannes Film Festival, but all the audience and his peers thought he was crazy, and his friends expressed strong resentment because they were teased. But Jacqueline said it was a "crazy and amazing experience."
He then shined in independent films. In 2012, he starred in Paul Thomas Anderson's "The Master", playing an alcoholic and isolated veteran, and philip hoffmann both won the Venice Best Actor, in which the performance of the psychotherapy passage was praised by countless directors as "the master of the masters". In 2013, she starred in the science fiction romance film "She", falling in love with artificial intelligence. In 2014, he worked again with Paul Thomas Anderson on "Sex Is Evil", playing an isolated and impulsive detective who is troubled, and the contract killer in 2017's "You Never Been Here", both of which are characters with huge emotional consumption of actors.
I don't trust the Oscars
It was the worst radish I've ever tasted
For fame, he always seemed to be a sober and sarcastic gesture.
Even people who are fascinated by Jacqueline Phoenix's plays inevitably turn away from him in life.
He is the Oscar "blacklist star", disdainful of all kinds of fame and awards, has publicly stated: "The awards season is intriguing, there is no point in grabbing around", "The Oscar is completely nonsense, I don't trust the Oscar, it is the worst turnip I have ever tasted", "I look down on the 45-year-old who won the Oscar and then made ten bad films to make money". As a result, Phoenix, who has been nominated for an Oscar three times, has never won an award.
At the 70th Cannes International Film Festival awards ceremony, Almodóvar announced that Jacquin won the best actor crown with "You Never Been Here", And Jacquin did not hesitate to applaud with others, and then walked up to the podium with a surprised face and said: "I'm very sorry, I only wore a pair of casual shoes on the stage." The camera zooms down and his black canvas shoes go with a suit (above).
He refuses to take photos with fans, hates being flattered; never watches his own movies, gives interviews full of dirty words; he and the crew are home, and he announces that he is out of the shadows at every turn.
He confessed to his alcohol addiction and had 12 years of abstinence: "I thought I was a hedonist, I was in Los Angeles, and I wanted to have fun... Hanging around every day, buying drunks, looking for trouble, I was an idiot at that time! Less than a year after quitting drinking, he almost lost his life in a car accident.
His good friend Philip Hoffman also died of a drug overdose in 2014. After experiencing the pain of the people around him leaving one by one, Jacqueline was not able to leave the life of being dominated by alcohol and drugs.
He once said: "In my 20s, if I was dating an actress or doing something else, they (the paparazzi) would be very interested, and now they're mostly taking pictures waiting for me to get hit by a car or get thrown something by someone else." ”
Perhaps, an outlier like Jacqueline Phoenix will never be accepted by a certain kind of person, but it does not prevent him from being a true film master with great charm and superb acting skills.
Written by Beijing News reporter Li Yan