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Joaquin Phoenix Monday 26 February, 2001. Hotel Bristol. 4pm My interview with Joaquin Phoenix is to take place at the Hotel Bristol. The star is in Paris to publicise his new film, Quills, in which he plays a young priest tortured by his sexual desires and advised by the Marquis de Sade, whom he cares for in his asylum. Arriving a little early, I have time to check the batteries on my tape recorder and to translate my questions into English. Oh yes! I'm told Master Phoenix doesn't speak a word of French... 4:15pm. It's time! He appears, smiling, in casual clothes, sees out the previous journalists and invites me to follow him into a lounge. After briefly excusing myself for my English accent, the interview can begin... After Commodus in Gladiator and Willie Gutierrez in The Yards, you are finally playing a nice character. Is it a gamble or a need for change? I've never thought of myself as playing evil people. My characters are more than simply evil. Each one represents a complex character that I've had to work hard to achieve. I shot The Yards first and even though Willie is a bastard, he's not really evil. When they offered me Gladiator, there was no way I was going to refuse under the pretext that I had just finished playing a guy who kills his girlfriend and it would mean playing another evil person. These two characters are very different. Whatever the case, I'm happy to have played a good guy in Quills... Maybe journalists will stop asking me why I'm always playing bad guys! (laughs) You know, my only power as an actor is to accept or refuse a role but to be honest I don't watch my films once they're finished. With Coulmier, I tried more or less to play a character with good intentions from the beginning and I think that this role has come just at the right moment in my career. It's saved me having to rack my brains for a while. It was refreshing. Had you heard of de Sade before the film? Have you read his books? Of course I'd heard of de Sade. First I read the play from which the film is adapted, then I started to read his books. Then I realised that I didn't want to get to know the Marquis this way, for several reasons. Firstly, our Marquis and the historical Marquis are different, and also in our story Coulmier is not aware of the work done by the Marquis. I didn't want to have in my memory a Marquis completing a book but more a patient seeking to be healed through writing. That's why I haven't read a lot of the material. The story takes place in France and you play a Frenchman. Do you speak French? No, it's very embarrassing for me to admit it, but I don't even know how to say "thank you" in French. Sorry. What did you like about the character of Coulmier? Do you think that the way he acts is due to de Sade's writings or simply due to the fact that he's in love with this girl? Coulmier has renounced almost all his emotions and desires. The Marquis is simply a catalyst. He awakens a part of Coulmier's true nature and then he realises in the dream scene that he has an animal side. We all have a dark and perverse side as well as an internal beauty. The Marquis tries to convince Coulmier that he has a sexuality while he tries to make the Marquis realise that he has a heart. At the end, these two characters are whole because they accept the duality of human nature, made up of sexuality and spirituality together. I approached this Abbé in three stages: the pure idealist of the beginning who changes and matures when the doctor arrives, and finishes up completely disillusioned. That's not a hero. |