Joaquin Phoenix is Acting Again

Joaquin Phoenix recently sat down for an interview with the New York Times' T Magazine, in which it's revealed as an aside that he lives with Rooney Mara. Here's what he had to say:

On avoiding fame and celebrity:
"[It might stem from] some antiquated idea of rebellion as I plummet into middle age, desperately clinging to something.’’

On whether or not he would ever do a Marvel movie:
‘‘Something that’s going to demand six months of my time? I don’t know.’’

On his acting technique:
‘‘It’s just instinct. If I figured it out, I would be much happier and more confident and less anxious every time I work. But I enjoy not figuring it out. Bad acting is being self-conscious. Sometimes it’s a couple weeks on set before it feels like I find something...The best directors I’ve worked with always adjusted to what was happening with the actor. On set I’ve seen things when actors have given great ­performances and once it’s cut together you don’t feel it, you don’t care. I’ve done stuff that I thought was garbage and then it’s put together and it’s really effective.. When I was younger I thought the idea was to construct a character, figure out its arc — now I think arcs are kind of BS. The director creates the arc.’’

On his 2010 movie I'm Still Here:
‘‘An amazing experience: not finding your light, not hitting the mark, not memorizing lines. It allowed me to be bold in my decisions instead of being safe.’’

On going to rehab 12 years ago:
‘‘I really just thought of myself as a hedonist. I was an actor in L.A. I wanted to have a good time. But I wasn’t engaging with the world or myself in the way I wanted to. I was being an idiot, running around, drinking, trying to screw people, going to stupid clubs...I thought rehab was a place where you sat in a Jacuzzi and ate fruit salad. But when I got there they started talking about the 12 steps and I went: ‘Wait a minute, I’m still gonna smoke weed.’ I think at the core of the program is a spirituality that is important to me, but . . . I am a hippie, you know. (Though he still drinks when he flies (the last drink he had was a month ago on a flight to ­London) he has stopped smoking marijuana.) There’s too many things I enjoy doing and I don’t want to wake up feeling hungover. It’s not a thing I fight against — it’s just the way I live my life. Some of it’s probably age.’’

Read the full interview at the New York Times.

Joaquin Phoenix is the cover of our men's style issue, profiled by Bret Easton Ellis — out in the @nytimes this Sunday, Sept. 10. For more on the actor's upcoming roles in "Mary Magdalene" and "You Were Never Really Here," his thoughts on "Moana" — and his reluctant relationship with celebrity, click the link in our bio. Photo by @craigmcdeanstudio, styled by @JasonRider.

A post shared by T: The NYTimes Style Magazine (@tmagazine) on Sep 6, 2017 at 9:18am PDT