Joaquin Phoenix -
On Loving Liv and Life After River
He talks about making it on his own, what really happened
with Liv Tyler, and hanging out in the same Hollywood
that brought his brother`s world to an end. by Jeanne Fay It`s lunchtime at Hollywood`s
hard-core vegetarian restaurant Real Food Daily, and
Joaquin (pronounced Wah-keen) Phoenix is getting service
so attentive it borders on harassment. Water glasses are
refilled after his smallest sip and his satisfaction with
the miso soup is queried at regular intervals. An ardent
vegan (a vegetarian who eats no meat, fish, or dairy),
the 24-year-old Phoenix has patronized Real Food every
day this week. The way he sees it, the wait staff`s just
keeping an eye on a regular.
Maybe. But Phoenix, little brother of the late River
Phoenix, has become quite a familiar face these days -
and not just to the Real Food waiters. He`s jsut finished
four back-to-back films that began last fall with Clay
Pigeons (with Vince Vaughn) and Return to Paradise (also
with Vaughn, and Anne Heche). He flew directly from
filming Paradise in Thailand to the States where he
bopped between the New York, Los Angeles and Miami sets
of this month`s thriller 8MM, in which he`s starring with
Nic Cage. When that shoot ended, it was a few more months
in New York City for the upcoming dramatic thriller The
Yards, starring Mark Wahlberg.
If this semi-normadic way of life sounds exhausting, it
is. But if anyone can handle it, Joaquin Phoenix can.
Raising Arizona
Being a kid in the Phoenix family wasn`t a conventional
experience. Joaquin`s parents were missionaries,
traveling with their children through Central and South
America (Joaquin was born in puerto Rico) before finally
settling in Los Angeles when he was 4 years old. His
family`s introduction to show business "was an
innocent evolution - we didn`t set out saying `We`re
going to be actors,`" he says. "But it was pretty apparent
that there was talent in the family." As kids they would sometimes sing
in the streets to entertain passersby, and when their
mother began working for a casting director, all five
young phoenixes (River, Rain, Joaquin, Liberty, and
Summer) were signed with an agent. Joaquin, who
temporarily renamed himself Leaf when he was six, began
acting soon after, appearing on TV shows such as Murder,
Shw Wrote and in kids`movies like SpaceCamp.
For a long time, of course, his career was overshadowed
by that of his brilliant older brother, River, who died
of a druv overdose after a night of partying at L.A.`s
Viper Room in 1993. Joaquin is notoriously defensive when
it`s suggested that his brother had an ongoing drug
problem, saying that there was just one unfortunate night
that went too far. The storm of media attention after
River`s death overwhelmed Joaquin; both as a bereaved
brother and as an aspiring actor, he was followed by
camera crews and questioning journalists.
But Joaquin didn`t let the constant glare of the
spotlight keep him down either. He doesn`t worry about
the same fate and won`t shy away from the party scene
altogether, he`ll occasionally pop up in gossip columns
for raising hell with the likes of Ben Affleck. But he`s
also no offended by the media labeling him his brother`s
heir apparent in acting. "I`m proud of my
brother," he
says. "I
would never ot want to be associated with him."
What finally made Joaquina a star in his own right,
however, was his role in 1995`s To Die For as the
slack-jawed teen who falls for Nicole Kidman`s
murderously ambitious weathergirl. It soon led to roles
in Inventing the Abbotts and Oliver Stone`s U Turn.
Phoenix had entered the ranks of Young Hollywood, however
reluctantly: "I`m not in this business for the
lifestyle, to get into places and have free drinks."
He doesn`t appear to be in it for the ego trip either -
rarely satisfied with his performances, Phoenix doesn`t
often make it through screenings of his own films.
Perhaps that explains his apparent unfamiliarity with his
own face: "I look great there," he says, pointing at a picture in
a magazine. He is gently told that the photograph is, in
fact, of actor-director Ed Burns. "Oh, that`s no
me?" he says. "I was gonna
say ... I`m good-looking."
The things is, though, that he is good-looking - in what
is usually called an unconventional way, thanks to those
wicked eyebrows and slightly skewed mouth. Speaking of
eyebrows, he has acquired a bit of an accessory for his.
In 8MM, he plays a tattoo-ridden, vinyl-pants-clad
sex-shop employee. "I hate acting acting - I try to
be," Phoenix
says, explaining the physical transformation he udnergoes
for a part. Conysequently, Phoenix dyed his hair and
pierced his brow for the film.
Liv and Learn
Being the new It guy has made Phoenix fodder for the
gossip columns again, especially with his longtime,
recently ended romance with Abbotts costar Liv Tyler. His
analysis of the breakup paints it as the most civil in
Hollywood. "I`m a great believer in people coming
into your life, and you into theirs, for a reason,"
he says. "And i know that when Liv and I met, it was
for a reason - I really needed her and she really needed
me. And at a certain point, I think we stopped evolving
with each other, stopped progressing, and made a very
mature decision to move on, even though there was still a
great love there. There`s no one gossipy thing that I can
share. I`m thankful that we had the time we had."
Gentle responses like this help apint a picture of
Phoenix as the sweet, sensitive type. But Phoenix isn`t
content resting with that reputation or with the work
he`s done so far. "When you become satisfied, you stop
fighting, and I like fighting," he says. "It means that I`m constantly
progressing and evolving. I`m never satisfied, and
hopefully, I never will be."
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