I don’t normally watch The Late Show with David Letterman. In fact, I prefer to watch a movie that I like or a rerun of a show I enjoy like “Top Chef,” even if it is one I’ve seen 100 times. But late last night, I wasn’t sleepy and there wasn’t anything on, so I was scanning the cable guide when I stumbled upon what I knew would be interesting – Joaquin Phoenix on Letterman.
I know a train wreck when I am about to see it happen. Given Joaquin’s recent oddness these last few weeks, what with quitting acting to become a rapper and altering his appearance quite drastically, I knew I had to watch last night.
The show did not disappoint! You can see part of the interview here. Joaquin came out, dressed in a black suit with a full beard, what I can only describe as nappy hair, and sunglasses. The first thing he did was drink whatever is in the coffee cup provided the guests. From his interview, I’d say it was liquid valium because he was just totally out of it. Letterman would try to engage him in conversation about his new movie Two Lovers and if lucky, he would get a “yes” or “no” response. Joaquin would stare downward and didn’t seem to understand half of what Letterman was saying.
Of course, you know Letterman, after a while, he started having fun with it. He talked about Joaquin leaving acting to become a rapper and said they’d love to be there when the career took off. Joaquin mentioned coming back on the show to perform. After the appropriate pause, Letterman said “You know, that seems unlikely.” Then, he said the show owed an apology to Farrah Fawcett, another spacy guest. Joaquin seemed a bit agitated at times by Letterman’s humor. But, the best bit was when the interview was rapping up and Letterman said “Well, too bad you couldn’t be here tonight Joaquin.” It was at the same time one of the funniest yet most uncomfortable interviews I’ve ever seen.
I loved it when I read on Entertainment Weekly that Letterman’s executive producer Maria Pope said about Joaquin, “He’s been on three times now. The first couple of times we thought there was a gas leak in the greenroom. Now we’ve determined, no, that’s just Joaquin.”
The director of Two Lovers, James Gray, said that while filming, Joaquin kept complaining of being tired all the time, but after he heard Joaquin say he was quitting acting, Gray, who had also worked with Joaquin in The Yards and We Own the Night, tracked him down. Joaquin told him he was just tired of acting, but now Gray wonders if he somehow brought about this change.
There is a scene in Two Lovers where Joaquin does an awkward freestyle rap performance. Gray said that in the movie, Joaquin was actually imitating him and he wonders if he somehow had anything to do with what appears to be the ruin of Joaquin Phoenix.
That is, if you buy into the whole “quitting acting” thing. We shall have to wait and see if Joaquin, like Britney Spears, is having a meltdown right before our very eyes or if this is just the ultimate in performance art for an actor.