Everybody’s talking about Joaquin Phoenix’s strange appearance on Letterman last night, but at a junket for his new movie Two Lovers yesterday, Phoenix and Casey Affleck provided a lot more insight into his new rap project. The pair was also very cantankerous with a Newsweek reporter and at one point Affleck even made derogatory comments about Scarlett Johansson.
While followed around by his own film crew, Phoenix did a full round of interviews and got angry with Newsweek’s reporter for asking if his rap career was a hoax. “It’s hard not to get offended when you sit there with your little smile when you say we think this is a hoax,” he said. “Because you’re talking about my life. As if my life is a f—-ing joke to you! You can do the some may say, and put it on them. But it’s your question. It’s hard not to take it personally and feel like you’re saying my life is a f—-ing joke.”
After the interview, Newsweek’s Ramin Setoodeh writes: “Casey approached me and said he wanted to talk to me for the documentary. We entered a second room, where another camera woman started filming me. Casey said that he thought my interview with Joaquin went well—really? didn’t he hear the yelling?—and that Phoenix had shut down most journalists after a few questions. Then he started asking me a string of bizarre questions. Didn’t I think the media was being too hard on Joaquin? They left alone “the girl with ***.” (He was referring to Scarlett Johansson, who released an album of Tom Waits’ covers last year.)”
I suppose Joaquin Phoenix and his director, Casey Affleck, have learned a thing or two from 50 Cent about starting feuds with your competition in order to promote an upcoming album, but Phoenix takes it a little too far when he says, “There’s not that many new cats that I’m that into. For me, I think the years of hip hop were 87 through 93.” Aren’t Diddy and Method Man, two rappers from the post-1993 hip-hop era, reportedly collaborating on his album?
For the full interview, which is a lot crazier than the Letterman appearance, click here.