Joaquin Phoenix (or Leaf as I continue to call him) has quit acting for good to concentrate on his music.
At a benefit for Paul Newman’s Association of Hole in the Wall Camps kids charity in LA, he told a journalist from E! TV; “I’ve got an exclusive for ya, this is my last performance as An Actor. I’m not doing films any more.”
Cue meltdown.
Shocked at hearing this exclusive from the horse’s mouth, the E! man spluttered: ‘Why?”
Phoenix murmured some cliché about concentrating on music, and, standing next to Casey Affleck, said that now was ‘Casey’s time’, not his.
And here’s where it really went wrong.
Resting his hand on the former actor’s shoulder, the E! dude starts laughing. The camera widens to reveal Affleck crossing his arms menacingly. Phoenix can’t take it, gets the hump and slurs, “Why are you laughing at me?”
He’s so enraged he walks away in disgust. He gives the E! camera one final death stare before strolling off the red carpet entirely, leaving the flabbergasted interviewer to probe Affleck for some answers.
Casey was clueless, but did agree that Phoenix is now really into music, officially.
(God knows why you can’t be into music and act, I mean, Tom Waits does it…)
And, on Saturday’s premiere for his latest film Two Lovers, Phoenix was seen with ‘good’ and ‘bye’ drawn on his knuckles – the wrong way round – where he publicly reaffirmed his departure from acting.
This is not the first time Joaquin has called it a day for acting, he’s been on and off since his Parenthood days.
I seriously doubt this is the end of the line, but time will tell, folks, time will tell.
Check it out here.
