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David Letterman Interview Note: This interview is also available as an audio file: Part One / Part Two. (...) DAVID LETTERMAN: Very nice. Paul playing the Bob Marley song Buffalo Soldiers; it's the name of your new motion picture. Explain the connection there. JOAQUIN PHOENIX: Uh, I can't. [laughter] Uh, no. I can't believe you're asking me for the history lesson. DL: Well, the term Buffalo Soldiers applied to, uh... JP: They were freed slaves— DL: That's right. JP: —who uh, who fought against— DL: In the 1860s. JP: —the Native Americans— DL: Right. JP: —in the eighteen-blahblah [laughter]... Uh, in the south west. DL: And the term Buffalo Soldiers was given to them by the Native Americans because of the colour of their hair. JP: That's right. DL: It looked similar... it reminded them of the colour of the buffalo. JP: You did the work! DL: Well, thank you very much. They don't give these shows to chimps, you know. [laughter] JP: No, that's true. Very impressive. DL: But this movie was fantastic. I started watching it and I had no idea what it was going to be, because of the title. I thought, "Well, maybe it's a historical piece." It's not really; it takes place about in the 80s, doesn't it? JP: That's right, yeah. It's set on a military base in the late 80s, just preceding the fall of the Berlin Wall. It's set in West Germany. DL: Right. JP: And it basically follows the misadventures of this black market entrepreneur. DL: Right. Now, the source material for this is a novel of the same name. JP: That's right. Robert O'Connor wrote it. DL: Right. And do you get the sense that any of this kind of activity or behaviour takes place in the military? JP: Yeah, I mean they... we had all this research material and uh, it was uh, it was pretty shocking, kind of... what they had listed. There were a number of homicides and suicides and accidental deaths, um, that were pretty widespread. And I was pretty shocked, you know, when I first read it, I thought maybe this was just a wonderful work of fiction, but I found that um, all of it was really based in reality. DL: Yeah. Well, it's an exciting film. Congratulations. JP: Thanks very much. DL: Uh... how were things— JP: [referring to drink] Is this mine? DL: Yeah, that's yours, sure. Everybody gets a complimentary beverage. JP: Aw, thanks. [laughter] DL: What are you looking at? JP: Well, there are things floating... I don't want to be rude, but... DL: Yeah. JP: But, uh, maybe I'll try... DL: My killer ticks, that's what they are. [laughter] JP: Really? DL: Yeah. [laughter] How's everything else? How's, uh... you're spending more time in New York? Last time you were living with your sister in an apartment, is that right? JP: That's right. Actually, it's her apartment but I'm the older brother so I just take it over when I'm in town. DL: Uh-huh. Good, yeah. JP: It's kind of mean, isn't it? DL: No, it's fine. JP: Is it? You can go with that? DL: I think as an older brother you can do that. JP: Okay, that's cool. Yeah, no, everything's been... everything was great. I had a bit of a problem recently. I was just having dinner the other night with my girlfriend, um, and it was really like a lovely evening, then I heard this kind of pitter-patter coming down and I just thought that was sweet and romantic, just the sound of raindrops falling. DL: Right. JP: And then suddenly it was like the Hoover Dam burst and just gallons of water came pouring out of my ceiling and I'm running around the closet with a bucket trying to deal with it and it was really embarrassing. DL: Yeah. JP: I slipped and actually ended up with the bucket on my head. [laughter] DL: No, you... JP: I did! I did the whole cute, y'know, "Who put the lights out?" And she kind of took it off of me and we hugged and it was really a great moment. [laughter] DL: So what's the problem? It was just too much rain, the roof couldn't handle it? I mean, did you go upstairs to find out? JP: I think the neighbours... I tried to go upstairs. They have a door that leads up their staircase, which is normally open, but for some odd reason it was closed. DL: I see. JP: So I think that they were avoiding me. DL: But you know, I think the last week or so there's been a problem all over New York City because of the torrential rainfall. JP: Oh, I can't talk about that. My lawyer says I'm not supposed to talk about that. DL: Oh, okay. [laughter] Right. Good Lord, I'm sorry I brought it up then. JP: Yeah, you know, whenever it's an ongoing investigation. DL: Have you been doing anything else this summer besides working? Anything fun? Anything you're enjoying? What are you up to? JP: Well, I... kind of the fun I had was work. I just did this film, Ladder 49, which is about firefighters in Baltimore and I went down and I trained with them, I went to the training academy. [clapping] Yes, thank you! They would love that. [more clapping] Great group of guys, and uh... DL: How long was the training period? JP: Uh, I did about three and a half weeks. Typically it's ten to twelve weeks but I didn't have enough time. I did about a month with them and then a month an actual truck company and served with them. And it's quite interesting, I wasn't really prepared for the training. DL: Do you actually get yourself in a dangerous fire situation in the training? JP: To me it was dangerous. [laughter] DL: Yeah. JP: Uh, yeah. They have a building at the academy and they set up a live burn where they go in they set up a few fires, and then you go in in teams of six. And you open the door and smoke pours out and it's pitch black, you really can't see in front of you, you've got to touch the person in front of you to know where you're going, and you only know there's a fire 'cause you feel the heat and you kind of see this vague flickering in front of you. And we went in and we kind of hit this first fire, round the corner, we're working on the second one when I noticed the one we hit first kind of came back to life. And suddenly we're in the middle of them and I just absolutely panicked. And I was like, what do you do with the emergency signal? DL: Right. JP: And I was like, SOS! And I say "SOS" out loud and I realise that you don't actually say it. [laughter] It's not one of those things. So then I thought: mayday! mayday! So I screamed, "Mayday!" and just someone slaps me in the head. [laughter] They're saying, "Hey, shut the hell up!" [laughter] And I realised that that's actually the normal scenario for firefighters. Yes, it's extremely dangerous. DL: To be caught in the middle. JP: Well, you're fighting, like, millions of years of instinct. It's like a small dark place that's really hot. DL: Yeah. JP: And everything's saying, "Get out!" DL: And are you guys in there trying to extinguish these blazes with water? You bring the hoses in, is that what you do? JP: Yeah. We had a large hose and... yeah. DL: It actually sounds like it would probably be a thrilling experience. JP: It is, ultimately. When you survive. [laughter] Yeah. When you come out. DL: Sure, yeah. Then it's a thrill! We'll be right back with Joaquin Phoenix, everybody. [applause. commercials. applause] DL: You follow sports? You enjoy sports? JP: [coughs] I, uh... No, me and sports don't go well together. Uh, no, I like basketball. DL: Yeah. JP: No offence, guys. I uh... yeah, I'm a basketball fan. DL: Well, that's good. People like basketball. JP: You go to games? DL: No, I don't go to games. [laughter] JP: You don't? You never do? DL: I don't leave the house. JP: I went to the game, I went to the Nicks game. DL: Oh. JP: I got, like, these amazing seats where they're actually on the floor and it's amazing 'cause you don't realise how large these men are, really, until you're right there and you see them fall. It's a long way [laughter] that they go down. It's unbelievable. I went to this game and I looked up and I noticed this actor that I worked with kind of across the court, and I looked up and I was like, "Hey!" DL: Somebody we know? JP: Yeah, but do I say? What if I... DL: Yeah, mention his name. I think it's fine. JP: Really? [laughter] DL: Yeah. JP: Why don't you say it, so then I... DL: I don't know it, I wasn't there. [laughter] JP: But isn't there somewhere in the notes... Okay, Rick Moranis. DL: Oh, Rick Moranis, of course. JP: Yeah. Fantastic, thank you. [clapping] And I've been a huge fan of his forever. DL: Very funny man, and a friend of Paul's. PAUL: Oh yeah. He's a great old friend. JP: He's great. Really, he's your friend? I really shouldn't tell the story. [laughter] PAUL: No, but that… I won't hold this against you. JP: No, no, it's fine. PAUL: Tell us the funny story. Go ahead. JP: No, but I just... I waved to him, I just like, uh, "Hey, it's me, how's it going?" and he kind of did the kind of like, "Thanks very much." [laughter] You know, like I was the fan, who was... DL: Oops. JP: But that happens, you know. DL: Yeah. JP: I've done the same. DL: Oh really, you've done the same thing? JP: Well, you go... you like, do these premieres, like movie premiere, when you leave there's always a line of people that feel obligated to tell you the movie was good whether it was or not. DL: Right JP: They simply just do it. So after, like, the fifteenth time you stop becoming sincere and saying thank you. You're kind of just here and going, "Thank you, thank you, thank you." And I went down this line and this woman said, "I worked with your sister." And I go, "Thank you very much, you never do it alone, the director did so much..." [laughter] And I realised what she had said and it's just so humiliating. DL: You feel like a dope then, don't you? JP: Yeah. [laughter] Well, that's how I feel all of the time. DL: Just one of those moments in life, for heaven's sakes. We all go through them. JP: I've had many. DL: Yeah. Uh, let's show people a little bit of the film, which opens on Friday. JP: Are you going to tell them what's it's going to be? DL: Well, I was hoping you would tell them what this was about. JP: I can't remember what I was supposed to say, though. [laughter] DL: About the clip? JP: Yeah. Matt told me to say something, I can't remember what it was. DL: All right. Well, it takes place on an American base in Germany. JP: Right, that sounds good. [laughter] Right. DL: And you are kind of the wiseguy supply officer who gets all kind of stuff, whether it's legal or illegal, and suddenly somebody has come in to sort of bust you [laughter] for your activities. There's been a change of regime and they're trying to hunt you down. JP: That sounds like a great movie! [laughter and clapping] I've got to see this! DL: Yeah. So it'll be something like that. JP: Yeah, I think we're seeing kind of, uh, one of my earlier illicit deals. DL: Okay. All right, here we go. It's from Buffalo Soldiers and you can see it beginning Friday. |