Confirmed: Joaquin Phoenix Giving Up Acting To Pursue Music
We heard rumors last week that 34-year old Joaquin Phoenixmight be retiring from filmbut the fact that E!’s reporter didn’t take him seriously caused him to walk off and prevented him from elaborating further (check outthis vidfor the entire interaction). Phoenix was understandably peeved, but now theAP reportsthat this past Saturday night, at the premiere of his latest film,Two Lovers(directed by James Gray), Joaquin Phoenix officially announced the end of his movie career in order to pursue music. Phoenix showed up with the words “Good” and “Bye!” etched into his hands (check outthe AP articlefor the pic) and said:
It’s like greener pastures, you know what I mean? And so, I’m just going to try and like, I’ll just be doing the other thing. … Hopefully, I will emotionally impact you with that, as well.
My reaction to this is not so much “Awwww,” or “This is a tragedy!” as much as “Huh?” Phoenix has consistently turned in good performances throughout his entire career, with star-making turns in the Academy-Award-nominatedWalk the Lineas well as the box office successSigns. But my personal favorite is his role inGladiator, as the angsty, incestuous, adolescent-like Commodus. Almost without fail, Phoenix’s roles always portrayed him as a small person in a big world, battling with forces beyond his control, as he did in films likeClay PigeonsandTo Die For.
Although his recent work in films likeLadder 49orWe Own the Nightwere nothing to write home about, they were still competent and it never occurred to me that he would suddenly and unexpectedly give up a career that showed a lot of promise. It should be noted that Phoenix won a Grammy for his work onWalk the Line, a film for which he learned how to play guitar and sing. As a musician myself, I was actually quite impressed, not only with his technical skill, but with his proficiency at imitation in that film. Perhaps it’s not as much an end to a movie career as it is the beginning of a musical one? Let me know what you think in the comments.
Discuss: Are you sorry to see Phoenix leave the world of film? Are you excited to see what Phoenix might be able to bring to the world as a musician or a music video director?
