Joaquin Phoenix: Off His Rocker or a Brilliant Genius?

What can we learn from Joaquin Phoenix?  He’s been in the news a lot lately.  Not exclusively for his upcoming movie, Two Lovers, but for making an appearance in a Las Vegas club on February 5, 2009 as a rap artist.

That’s right.  Mr. Phoenix announced that he will leave the show business world of acting behind to pursue a career as a rap artist.  He also claims that he has started recording his first hip-hop album.

To add more “What The?!” to the mix, Joaquin Phoenix made an appearance on Letterman last night (Feb. 11) to promote his latest movie co-starring Gwyneth Paltrow.  However, Joaquin as we know him didn’t quite show up.  He is already a week into his lifestyle as a rap artist and boy did his interview with Letterman suggest exactly that.

The 10-minute interview was at once uncomfortable, funny, sad and confusing.  Joaquin rarely gave more than a few word answers, was chewing gum the whole time and couldn’t understand why no one was taking him seriously.  At one point, Letterman made a comment about his gum chewing so he decided to spit it out and stick it under his desk.

Joaquin Phoenix looked like a mess, sounded like he was drugged up and really seemed to embarrass himself.  Yet he’s an absolute genius.

Why?  Because the whole entire get-up is an act, a hoax if you will.

Let’s break it all down.  Everyone across the land is now discussing the appearance (including most radio stations) and debating whether or not it was real.  That, my friends, is what’s known as P.R. Gold  (P.R. = Public Relations)!  Andy Kaufman lived and died in this medium.

The Talk Show Circuit

Let’s look into this a bit further.  When an actor has a movie coming out, what’s the purpose of going on talk shows?  To promote their movie, of course.  Their publicists set up plenty of interviews and the actors hit the circuit.

Most actors will go on a show like Letterman, have their questions planned out with the host (true!) and tell charming stories about their Summer, kids or Christmas vacation.  Occasionally, we’ll be rewarded with something like Joaquin.

Mr. Phoenix is a two-time Academy Award nominee who is no stranger to the way the business works (remember, he’s the brother of River, who had an unfortunate untimely death).  Joaquin, quite cleverly, created a character that when executed correctly would have many more people uttering his name than if he showed up ‘as himself.’

So, he is not off his rocker, he is not on drugs, he is an actor performing quite brilliantly.

Thank you, David Letterman!

Mr. Letterman, himself, needs to be acknowledged and congratulated as the co-star in this entire stunt.  Never once did we see a wink to the audience or a break in their characters.  They each displayed total commitment to their characters.  No news here, but David Letterman is a television virtuoso.

Study The Joaquin Method

What then as actors can we learn from his appearance on Letterman?  P.R. is good. You want people to notice you and talk about you.  Be careful not to cross the fine line and have people talking about you in a bad way.  Joaquin was able to pull off such an extreme act because of who he is and where he is in the biz, but there is a lot we can learn from watching his amazing execution.

Make sure you are always memorable and leave a positive impression.  If people are talking about you in this business, you are doing something right.  What can you do to get noticed and leave a good impression?

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