|
Joaquin Phoenix Berlingske Tidende met with Joaquin in Cannes last year. He was there because of the The Yards, and the newspaper got the chance to get an interview with him! Your character Willie is really a kind of a fop? JP: Yes, the clothes are very important for this figure, since he is trying to camouflage his insecurity with the help of his clothes. I have with time discovered that people who are very vain normally in reality are very insecure. Since Willie is heavy built, I had to put on some weight for the role, and kept that weight gain in my role in Gladiator. But now I have lost the extra weight! Willie is kind of a villain — but on the other hand still not? JP: I don't see him as a villain. He is a man who is looking for the perfect family, and it is an important point that you never see his real family in the movie, all the persons in this movie are from broken homes, and unfortunately that is very typical for our time. At the same time Willie represents the American Dream; that means the dream about material prosperity, but he never gets a proper guidance that could have taught him how to get this prosperity in a decent way. I am not approving Willie's actions in the movie, but I have symphaty for him as a human being! You are the brother to departed River Phoenix, and belong to a whole family of actors. JP: Yes, our parents encouraged us all to express ourselves artistically, and I would wish that all kids get the same experience. We painted, played music and when one child in a family of brothers and sisters starts on something, the others have a tendency to follow. River was the first of us who became an actor, and the rest of us followed him — we are five siblings! Your sister Summer Phoenix has the leading role in Annaud Desplechin's movie Ester Kahn that also is being shown here in Cannes, what do you think about it? JP: It is very hard for me to be objective. I know how hard Summer worked for that part, because when she was in London to shoot Ester Kahn I was in town to be in Gladiator. I think my sister is an outstanding actress, and I am very proud of her. Were there no conflicts between you and your siblings? JP: All kids go through a phase where they revolt against their siblings and want to be different, but things like that just could not happen at our place. An example is when I started to ride a skateboard to be different, then they all started to do the same, and in that way you never escape from your family! You must be very pleased that Gladiator was such a success. JP: I am, but I am very naive, and during the shootings I never thought about if the movie would be a success or not. I only thought about the work with my own character. But it is really due to Ridley Scott that it was a success. Many doubted that it would it be a success, afterall it is a movie about guys running around in a toga, right? Most recently you have been in the movie Quills. JP: It is directed by Philip Kaufman and based on a play about Marquis de Sade, it is a fictive store, and actually pretty funny, until the ending takes a very dramatic turn. My character is the head of the Charenton institution, where Marquis de Sade was. All the patients there, got the same treatment no matter what kind of mental illness they were suffering from. In the movie my figure get warm feelings for the lady's maid played by Kate Winslet, but it does not develop to a sexy and sweatdripping relationship, but more to a romantic one. And besides this the movie is about humanistic longings and national suppression, and the funny thing is to have a sex-machine like Marquis de Sade trapped in a story like this. In some ways Quills reminds me of an old Disney Cartoon, just with a lot of sexual subharmonic and a very outspoken form of humour. The big fight in The Yards with Mark Wahlberg seems incredible realistic? JP: You have to remember that it actually are two very good friends who are fighting, so this fight as in other movies should not be totally without feelings. Mark and I wanted to describe a streetfight as realistic as possible, and how the adrenaline is pumping in two good friends who gets into a fight. The director James Gray, was just standing besides us shounting "Great, continue, kill eachother!" The next day I was full of blue and yellow marks and my head hurt, but to be honest I think it is one of the best and most realistic fights, I have ever seen in a movie! And the future? JP: I am not sure, at the moment I am waiting for a movie project that I really like. I have just been in three movies in a row, and when I finished, I was lying on my bed only wearing boxershorts for a whole week. I have never in my life been so exhausted! |