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| news archive - june 2000 |
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| poll results for June: I am a fan of Joaquin since ... 42% ...
"Gladiator" Friday, June 23
2000 Joaquin was recently in a motorcycle accident. He walked away from the accident, but diners at an outdoor cafe were messed up a bit. Joaquin needed a few stiches. In the French magazine "Liberation" there is a big article about "Gladiator" and Nina translated the part about Commodus for us: Commodus pretty amused the americans: some critics were joking about his "regretable name" (commode, in english means toilette), ignoring that Commodus was a real emeror. Marcus Aurelius - none for his conctant documents - was actually inventif in vengeance: after his wifes confessed that she desires a certain gladiator, he murdered the man and forced her to bath in his blood to the belt, before joining him in bed. His son Commodus also desired gladiators, but he rather offended them at the combats, all probably cheated. Rome offered him 1000 pieces of gold for every gladiator, they say he killed 700, before being strangled by one of them while he was sleeping. Joaquin Phoenix isn't as good as Charles Laughton, even if he took impressably many weight for the role, but his cubist baby-face seems to come straight from a roman medal. He doesn't play crazy, nor psycho or excessivly diabolic; he plays sick and unloved - a wunderful creation. Little excerpt from the "TIME"
magazine Ridley Scott - Story: On the French Summer Phoenix page you will find an article transleted into english that also mentions Joaquin ... Thoughtful, Summer Phoenix gets out of her musing by the unexpected appearance on the beach of two young men. She taps on the table of surprise and leaves us to fall on one's neck. The other one comes and takes Summer's place, in front of us. "What was the question?" he asks, wearing red sunglasses, face not badly fixed, faultless. It's Joaquin Phoenix, very proud to present in Cannes The Yards by James Gray, a movie he considers the best he's ever done. Summer being still busy elsewhere, her brother talks about her to us. "I was shooting Gladiator in London when Summer was doing Esther Kahn there. Of course she worked very hard, and alone. But for me there is no worse sign on a set than when everybody slaps your shoulder and says : congratulations, great. I'm not recommending torture, but you have to be constantly in a state of searching. That was what Summer lived with Esther Kahn : an infinite quest for perfect moments." A quote by River
Phoenix on his brother and sisters: Here an
article from pagesix.com The young actor flew to Cannes for the gala premiere of James Gray's film and found himself "stunned" by the finished product, a dark tale of personal betrayal and political corruption in the NYC transit system. "I tend not to react too well to my own work, or what ends up on the screen. It's such a crapshoot," Phoenix said. "But James Gray exceeded every expectation any actor could have for a director - the rehearsal process, the intimacy he encouraged, his absolute determination never to let one moment of false emotion get by." Joaquin agreed to talk straight from getting off a plane from the U.S. and then being paraded around to various journalists at the Carlton Hotel on a hot, blinding-white day. He was exhausted and anxious about going to the premiere of his sister's film that same night (Summer Phoenix stars in "Esther Kahn," playing a Hasidic woman who wants to be an actress). But tired or not, Joaquin's eyes - which change from blue to green to gray to hazel depending on the light - blazed with energy whenever he got deep into talk about the movie. Joaquin had originally intended to play Leo, the ex-con. But he ended up with the role of Willie, who leads Leo, played by Mark Wahlberg - all frustrated emotion and vulnerability - back into trouble, destroying his own life in the process. "Willie is a guy who thinks he has it all figured out. He has the money, the girl (a mortally moving Charlize Theron), the life," Phoenix said. "What I loved was the emotional deconstruction of the character. And how James Gray kept all of it so true to our characters, and how he did the most amazing things, had the most amazing ideas on the spur of the moment. This is definitely the best experience I've ever had with a movie. I am, for once, completely satisfied with myself and the work in total." "The Yards" definitely ushers in the era of Joaquin Phoenix, movie star. He's not a quirky indie guy anymore. Don`t expect any updates in the next 8 days, I am going on vacation. Tuesday, June 20
2000 Sunday, June 18
2000 Saturday, June 17
2000 According to the imdb.com Joaquin made a TV guest appearance in 1990 in "The Adventures of Superboy"! Thursday, June 15
2000 ... The one character who escapes this superficial treatment is Commodus, and thus, his scenes are almost always the most engaging, well-written, and emotionally interesting. Joaquin Phoenix is marvelous in the role, bringing an edgy despondence to a character who could easily have been little more than a comic-relief wuss. His petulance is more juvenile than prissy, and his displays of emotion are–at times–genuinely touching, even when they're menacing. Wracked with unquenchable envy and lifelong bitterness regarding his father's more substantial love for Maximus, Commodus is a pitiable overgrown child wearing an emperor's crown and wielding unlimited power. We can't stand the guy, but he's a lot more fun to watch than anybody else in the movie. In that sense, Commodus (as a character) and Phoenix (as an actor) are the story's saving grace. ... Tomas Arana plays an Roman
soldier in "Gladiator". In an interview he mentions Joaquin: Tuesday, June 13
2000 Hero of the month:
Joaquin Phoenix As a curious actor, Joaquin Phoenix wanted to do a big movie, a superproduction with action. Just to see. But he wasn't prepared for the noise he discovered when he arrived at the Gladiator set in England, with hundrets of supers, war machines and stuff. He was nervous everytime he started a new film, but this time he was actually paralysed. Everybody said, that doing his first scenes was difficult. "But the impression to be overcharged quickly dissapeared thanks to Ridley Scott", explains Joaquin. "He's so calm, he could make you believe you're working on a small movie instead of such a giant production, shooted in five month in three countries. It's really importent to me to be directed by a director who's able to make me feel confortable and who helps me to dip into my character and forget the rest." Russel Crowe's version, who is one of his co-stars in Gladitor, is pretty different. "At the beginning Joaquin just couldn't relax. I talked about that with Richard Harris (wich plays the part of Marcus Aurelius). With all his wisdom and experience he told me very simply: "Let's get him a bit drunk." So I made Joaquin come to my caravan one evening to drink some beer with Richard. After a while, he was completly relaxed and started to recite poems. He understood, that we are just actors, jugglers like he is one, in spite of our different ages, different origins and different careers..." Joaquin Phoenix' career began at the age of 10, when he decided to be an actor like his brother River, and called himself Leaf to do like the rest of the family. Fifteen years later he went back to the original (pronounced "Wah-keen"), but still did movies. We could see him in "To Die For" by Gus van Sant (94); "U-Turn" by Oliver Stone (97) and "8mm" by Joel Schumacher (98). We'll soon find him in "The Yards" by James Gray, wich was presented in Cannes this year, and so in "Quills" by Philip Kaufman. In Gladiator, Joaquin plays the role of the emperor Commodus, a tormented young man, like most of the characters he played so far. "There were many storys that told about madness. I don't think we are born evil; so I built uo my performance on his transformation; what made him become the way he was?" For his own transformation, the actor changed his physical appearance, during the time when the crew shoot scenes, in wich he didn't appear, in marocco, to put on weight and change his haircut... The costumes also played an imporant role, not only to help him to get into his character, but also to reflect his state of mind. "In public, Commodus always weared his armour, what shows his vulnerability and that he doesn't feel save in front of the fool. When I'm doing a film, I'm always obsessed by my character's shoes. Not actually for their aspect, but because of what I feel while wearing them, the way they help me changing the walk of my character. In this case the choise was limited. I asked for Nikes, but they didn't exist at the time... We evoked sandales, but I wanted Commodus to be completly covered by his costume, and the only exposed parts from his person should be his face and his hands. So I was wearing boots, and I had my legs bandaged between the top of the boots and the bottom of the toga." Boots in leather to be precise, wich is totally opposite to Joaquin's principals, a strict vegan, that eats nothing, wich has anything to do with the origin animal, even if he makes an exeption for the needs of a movie like Gladiator. "I think the impact, that I have in touching a big audience, compenses largly the negativ aspect of wearing leather boots. It's difficult, when you do a movie in costume, even if the costumers often are very comprehensive. For "Quills" they agreed to make me laced boots from the nineteenth century in synthetic." Monday, June 12
2000 "On airplanes they never think I belong in first class," Phoenix says, tugging at his tufts and perching strangely on a chair with one of his legs resting on the arm. His speech is grunge-Brando-mumbly and slightly nasal. "They always ask me to see my boarding pass. And people hate to sit next to me. They look at me, and then they look at there ticket and make some excuse about the window, the air" - which isn't surprissing to Phoenix's best friend annd To Die For costar, Casey Affleck. "I've been on planes with him, and I don't really want to look at him, either," Affleck says, "because he sits down and drinks sixteen shots of whatever he can find and pulls his shirt over his head and stays like that for the rest of the flight." Doug Wright, whose play Quills has been made into a movie starring Phoenix as a deeply conflicted priest, recalls a day on the set when he intercepted Phoenix coming out of his dressing room in costume. "He had a cigarette dangling out of his mouth and he had on these really intense aviator shades and his hair was all tousled , and he was like, 'Hey, dude,' " Wright says. "Then he walked onto the soundstage, and the zigarette gets stamped out and the glasses come off and someone runs a comb through his hair, and the guy is suddenly an early-nineteenth-century priest. It was the most transformative moment-it took my breath away. Joaquin is someone who could slide by you in the hallway, but aim a lens at him and he becomes thirty feet tall." Whereas a lot of Phoenix's peers are associated with "a kind of hip affectations," Wrigh says, "Joaquin is genuine, with access to absolutely volcanic emotional places in his soul." "I had a great time with him, and he's a hell of an actor," Gray says. "Joaquin has unbelievably, tour de force natural skills. But the question is, how do you get it from him? It's a brutal procces." As Gray describes it, Phoenix likes directors to work him in a state-to practically perch like a tiny devil on his shoulder and hiss motivational tidbits in his ear, thereby driving him hard to the emotional core of the piece. It works like this: As Phoenix prepares to play a scene, he goes into an altered state, then jerks his fingers at the director, what means "start goading me." "So you'll say somethink like ' Hey, you thought you had it all figured out, but never going to fit it in,' says Gray. "Look at you-you've got that patina of loser. You just that close to being Travis Bickle or Rupert Pupkin.' You just talk to him that way, and all of a sudden he's like..." Gray screws up his face in anguish, as if he's about to pop, an indication that Phoenix has gone through the looking glass. "Then Joaquin says, 'Roll, roll, roll!' And you roll the film." One day on the set of The Yards, James Gray discovered Phoenix teary-eyed in his trayler. "I ask him if everything was all right," says Gray. "And he said, 'Oh, some journalist just asked me about my brother.' I said, 'You don't like to talk about that, do you?' And he goes, 'No. I. Don't.' That was the only time we ever mentioned it." It is tempting to fret about a gentle, soy-loving soul like Joaquin Phoenix in the unabashed meat market that is Hollywood. "I just pray for him," says Summer. "After you've been burned, you grow a harder shell, and I don't think Joaq is capable of growing a harder shell. He's not someone who can say, 'OK, I'm going to be a dick to you because you were a dick to me.' He just stays true to himself in every way he can." But aside from the locustlike press invasion in the wake of River's death, Phoenix has yet to be burned. "With Joaq, people kind of want to take care of him, because they see that he's still pure," says Affleck. "It's like when someone has an 8-month old child in their arms and everyone in the room kind of smiles and looks at it and wants to protect it and love it, because they're all thinking, Oh God, I hope the world doesn't get to him. I hope for Joaq, more than anyone else, that he doesn't become cynical and hardened by the nastiness of the business. And he probably won't, but it's a fight. It's hard for him, I can tell." Read the whole article right here. A review from somebody who saw THE YARDS in Cannes: For the last 5 years, James Gray has been polishing up his second film after LITTLE ODESSA. Another family story taking the sacrosanct structure of the Greek tragedy. Leo (Mark Wahlberg) comes out of jail for a car robbery he did not commit. He comes home. His mother (Ellen Burstyn) is sick, his aunt (Faye Dunaway) has remarried with the boss of a railroad company (James Caan) who offers him a job. Leo finds again Willie (Joaquin Phoenix) whom he did not give away for the robbery and his cousin Erica (Charlize Theron). The railroad company is shrouded in corruption. Willie kills an employee and says Leo is guilty... Gray says he took inspiration from ROCCO ET SES FRERES (Rocco and His Brothers) and LA BETE HUMAINE (The Human Beast). Personally I saw more the shadow of "On the Waterfront" and the light of "The godfather". Which is already something good. "The Yards" keeps referring with respect to Coppola's film, with the beautiful photography very close of Vittorio Storraro's (if I remember well from the mob trilogy) or with the description of a family about to collapse. The is no doubt, "The Yards" is a working-class version of "The Godfather" . And that's one of the best idea of the film : trying to give some "aristocracy" in a working-class family. Having chosen James Caan as the father figure is certainly not innocent. When he sits in his big chair, the face half in the shadow, you could think he just took Marlon Brando's seat. A bit like if Gray had decided to give revenge to the Corleone brother murdered in the first "Godfather". The parallel keeps growing when "The Yards" can be seen as a transition between two generations : Mark Wahkberg is definitely a good actor, not overacting, and could be seen as young De Niro; Charlize Theron, at last in a great role, could replace Diane Keaton. But it's mainly Joaquin Phoenix who's amazing, and showing the strenght of a new Pacino. "The Yards" is then a very convincing film from an artistic point of view, Gray being an incredibly good director of actors, and just a good director of a beautifully shot film. The only thing missing in "The Yards" it's a real inspiration; the film seems so controlled, so well directed that it finds itself prisoner of a too known story. "The Yards" could have been a big mob saga from this beginning of the years 2000; but is instead stuck by this comfortable directorial line which defines the all movie (when it should have been free to abandon itself to tragic lyrism). "The yards" is at the same time too ambitious and too classic to be rewarded here in Cannes. and here an old article about "Quills" Phil Kaufman to
Heat Up Art Houses With Racy `Quills' / Drama about de
Sade features Geoffrey Rush -- all of him Local filmmaker Phil
Kaufman was seen pacing in the lobby of the Embarcadero
Center Cinema last Sunday. It wasn't the imminent birth
of his first grandchild that made him uneasy. It was
another baby: "Quills," his
sure-to-be-controversial movie about the Look for Oscar
nominations for its literate, sexually charged screenplay
and sterling cast led by the very game Geoffrey Rush as
the Marquis. We had heard rumors about nude scenes when
"Quills" was shooting in London. But who would
have imagined that it was The film focuses on
the Marquis' heroic effort to continue to write
pornography despite his confinement at Charenton Asylum
for the Insane in France. Kate Winslet plays a virginal
laundress who sneaks his scorching words out into the
world after using them to Sunday, June 11
2000 French Premiere magazine
(July) features Russell on the cover, a 6 page spread on
the film, together with a review and an interview with The June 9 issue of Entertainment Weekly (U.S.) has an article on early contenders for Oscar 2001, and Gladiator made the list. According to the magazine the movie is a contender for a Best Picture nomination, but only if Academy members see it as an epic film rather than just an action film. Ridley Scott could be nominated for Best Director, and Joaquin Phoenix is a contender for Best Supporting Actor, although the magazine thinks it's Oliver Reed's final performance that members will want to honor in that category. Thanks to Harumi for sending me the article form NOW magazine, the article is called River died and I changed my life. Here some excerpts: After since Joaquin's next film Quills to be released later this year, is another potential box office winner, starring Kate Winslet, Michael Caine and Geoffrey Rush, life may never be quite the same. " I'm nervous about it all," he admits. " I'm currently without a home and without any real order to my life. I was living in New York. then Gladiater came up and I travelled around to the locations in Malta and England. Then came Quills and it was back to London to a rented apartment. Now, I'm anxious to find anywhere I can call home. I'm either in hotels or sleeping on the floor at friend's places." "Fortunately I'm very close to my family and always talk about what I'm going to do with my mum and sisters. They know I'm always asking questions about myself." "I'm never sure what I'll do next. Who knows, I may even disappear again for a time. Anything is possible." Here another article (thanks to Scyranix) from Singapore! It is called Phoenix rising (a frequently used phrase!) Commodus has a fear of the dark. Do you have any fears or phobias? Flying. I don’t even have to think about that one. Your climatic duel with Russell Crowe is quite physical. Any war wounds to speak of? Just a couple of scrapes. (Coyly) Nothing really worth talking about. There were a few scrapes but I love that. You want to get bruised and kicked around just to get your adrenaline going. Are you comfortable with fame? It doesn’t really interest me. I don’t partake in the extracurricular activities that some actors do. I’ve had my fair share of going to parties and the premieres, but clearly the work is what’s lasting and that’s what keeps me inspired. Saturday, June 10
2000 You can read Joaquin`s Entertainment Weekly article at ew.com or on my page! Some excerpts right here: "When I met with him for Gladiator, I think his first reaction was absolute horror," says director Ridley Scott. "He said, 'You want me to do a toga-and-sandal movie? You've got to be out of your f---ing mind!' And he actually suggested we test him, which is very smart because he needed to find out if he could do it too." Which raises the question: How many actors would give a director the chance to show them they're wrong for a part? Still, even after he landed the role, Phoenix seems to have held on to that same self-doubt. He worried that the extra weight and pasty complexion he intentionally acquired to convey Commodus' descent into decadence was lost on everyone but himself. "They just thought I was getting fat," he says. "I think Ridley wanted a sexier emperor." Adds costar Richard Harris, who plays his father, Marcus Aurelius: "Joaquin doesn't believe he's good and you have to tell him how f---ing marvelous he is. He says, 'I'm hopeless, they all think I'm as good as River, I shouldn't be in this picture, I should be selling cars, I'm not an actor at all.'" Oh, and he tells he has chosen to quit smoking! Look at this new Joaquin-fanpage from a Japanese girl named Ayukawa. Finally there are going to be more Joaquin-fansites on the net! (Quite new to the web is also this French Summer Phoenix page!) Follow the link to an article about Joaquin from IF-magazine. It is basically about "Gladiator". Another article comes from "In2Film" which did a special on Gladiator. Thanks to Josie for sending me the pic and typing the text! Nerves troubled Joaquin Phoenix at the start of the biggest role of his film career. The young actor simply wasn't convinced he would be credible as the demented Roman Emperor Commodus. Both Ridley Scott and Russell Crowe knew he was made of the right stuff but were worried he wouldn’t relax into the role. So they used an unorthodox method to loosen him up, thought up by Richard Harris, who plays the aged Emperor Marcus Aurelis. “Harris said ‘Let’s get him drunk’,” says a laughing Russell. So one night after filming they all sat down, had a few beers and told Joaquin that he was rated as a quality actor. “Joaquin realised, ‘I’m an actor, so I can relax a little bit more’,” said Russell. And another article! From the German "Sugar" magazine. You have to thank Cathy for translating the text into English! Saturday, June 3
2000 Thursday, June 1
2000 And a good news: The Summer Phoenix Pages got updated by their owner Riikka (she plans to do that more often now!)
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