Joaquin Phoenix punk'd us. It was all a "performance."

[jefferson_dem]

CASEY AFFLECK wants to come clean.

His new movie, “I’m Still Here,” was performance. Almost every bit of it. Including Joaquin Phoenix’s disturbing appearance on David Letterman’s late-night show in 2009, Mr. Affleck said in a candid interview at a cafe here on Thursday morning.

“It’s a terrific performance, it’s the performance of his career,” Mr. Affleck said. He was speaking of Mr. Phoenix’s two-year portrayal of himself — on screen and off — as a bearded, drug-addled aspiring rap star, who, as Mr. Affleck tells it, put his professional life on the line to star in a bit of “gonzo filmmaking” modeled on the reality-bending journalism of Hunter S. Thompson.

“I’m Still Here” was released last week by Magnolia Pictures to scathing reviews by a number of critics, including Roger Ebert, who wrote that the film was “a sad and painful documentary that serves little useful purpose other than to pound another nail into the coffin.”

“The reviews were so angry,” said Mr. Affleck, who attributed much of the hostility to his own long silence about a film that left more than a few viewers wondering what was real — The drugs? The hookers? The childhood home-movie sequences in the beginning? — and what was not.

Virtually none of it was real. Not even the opening shots, supposedly of Mr. Phoenix and his siblings swimming in a water hole in Panama. That, Mr. Affleck said, was actually shot in Hawaii with actors, then run back and forth on top of an old videocassette recording of “Paris, Texas” to degrade the images.

<SNIP>

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/09/17/movies/17affleck.html?_r=2&adxnnl=1&adxnnlx=1284720832-fKJ2Bgf4Tp6sPplDZJxDQQ

[Orrex]

1. IIRC about 90% of us here called it a hoax from the outset

[Amerigo Vespucci]

2. Yeah, if the "us" that got punked means "everyone except me," then "we" got punked

:rofl:

:toast:

[Tuesday Afternoon]

3. uhm, not me -- nor a lot of other DUers ---

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=8508083#8508416

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=9472581#9474595

[Kali]

5. I jut did an update so it may be me, but links did't work???

[Ptah]

6. Here are two that should work:

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=8617738

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=show_topic&forum=105&topic_id=8508083

[Tuesday Afternoon]

7. fixed

thanks

[alphafemale]

4. I didn't believe it was real for a minute. But that doesn't make Phoenix any less odd. nt

[Iggo]

8. No one...I repeat: No one...thought it was real. (n/t)

[Fire Walk With Me]

13. And even fewer cared about it at all...

What a big "shrug".

[Generic Brad]

9. I've heard his name so often lately I can finally pronounce it

Sadly, I used to pronounce his name as "Joke-Queen". Now that seems appropriate.

[NewJeffCT]

10. I really didn't pay all that much attention

I remember hearing he was giving up acting to become a rapper, but then I really didn't think much about it then and didn't really follow the story. Quirky actors and actresses are a dime a dozen.

[Hell Hath No Fury]

11. Performance art ---

in the Andy Kaufman vein. :D I love that. It was clear to me that's what was going on but it was amazing to see so many -- including DUers -- buy into the whole thing. It is very worth noting how this happens -- it explains folks buying into Beck (another one doing performance art) and Hinn and such.

The reviews were BRUTAL -- some "got it" and loved it, some "got it" and still hated it. I think this is one movie I will take come time to see.

[mitchum]

12. Only his publicity flacks thought it was real (and they are paid to do so)