Two Lovers, James Gray’s romantic dramedy starring Joaquin Phoenix and Gwyneth Paltrow, has grossed only about $2,000,000 domestically despite positive reviews. Naturally, Gray says the low gross was all C-Joaq’s fault.
“It’s like, Letterman was trying to get the movie out there, but the only thing that’s out there now is a crazy person with a beard making a fool of himself!” says Gray, still seething today at the “circus” surrounding Phoenix. Phoenix claims to be leaving the world of acting to become a rapper, albeit one with a camera-wielding brother-in-law, Casey Affleck, in tow. Gray spits at the name, calling him a “clown”. “I have no idea what the hell that guy is shooting,” he says. “The whole thing is not to my taste, and I’ve let Casey know this.” [timesonline]
Look, dude, it didn’t bomb because Joaquer Texas Rapper was acting crazy, it bombed because the casting was weird. If you want to make a non-traditional Hollywood rom-dram, don’t cast it like an US Weekly cover. However, no arguments about Casey Affleck being a clown. I just wish Crispin Glover had crashed through the window singing “Clowny Clown Clown” to properly illustrate the point.
A lot of people around Hollywood are saying Joaquin Phoenix’s performance art project or whatever you wanna call it is sabotaging Two Lovers, the movie he’s supposed to be promoting. But guess what, it’s a rom-com with Joaquin and Gwyneth Paltrow, no one wants to see that shit anyway. For his part, Lovers director James Gray doesn’t know what to make of it either.
“If it is an act, it’s the most committed act I’ve ever seen in my life.”
Now, Gray wonders if he’s responsible for Phoenix’s decision to quit acting and take up rapping. Two Lovers features an awkward freestyle rap performance by Joaquin, and Gray believes the actor is imitating him. “I had an obsession with doing that sort of thing as a teenager. It turns out that Joaquin is imitating me in a lot of the movie. He said, ‘I want to do that, I want to steal from that, I want to do the rap that you used to do.’ I said, ‘OK.’ And now I’m seeing him do this thing, and I feel like I’ve ruined Joaquin Phoenix for the world. I don’t want to be the guy that destroyed Joaquin Phoenix’s acting career.” [DeadlineHollywoodDaily]
I wouldn’t beat yourself up. Joaquin was a good actor, but for the time being at least, guy who pretends to be on drugs and sticks gum under Letterman’s desk is about 1000 times more entertaining than guy who talks about why his character fell in love with Gwyneth Paltrow. And yet, not quite as entertaining as guy who gets hit in the nuts with food. Something to ponder.
Having already signed on for a full-length documentary, Joaquin Phoenix can’t just come out and say his rap career is a hoax, even though it clearly is.
After video hit the Internet last month capturing part of Phoenix’s debut rap performance at a Las Vegas club, speculation swirled that he was perpetrating an elaborate practical joke.
“I don’t know where that comes from,” Phoenix said. “If it comes from people that I’ve had a falling out with, that are (ticked) off at me?”
“There’s not a hoax,” Phoenix said. “Might I be ridiculous? Might my career in music be laughable? Yeah, that’s possible, but that’s certainly not my intention.”
Phoenix’s friend and brother-in-law, Casey Affleck, was on hand with a camera crew as he did interviews for “Two Lovers.” Affleck said his friend is completely serious.
“It sucks that, yeah, the footage is out there as like this incredibly bad sound, and you literally can’t hear what’s happening,” said Phoenix, who still has his bushy beard. “It was much better in the club, and I don’t know who said that people were booing … because that was not happening.
“Unless, of course, it’s a pretty big place, and maybe it was happening,” Phoenix added, laughing. “But it was not my experience. My experience afterward was I had a lot of dudes come up and say, `We really respect you for doing it, putting yourself out there, and going with it.’ Because I think true hip-hop heads know that it’s hard, it’s going to be a hard transition, and people are going to be lining up just to make fun of me.” [Yahoo]
So… anyone buying this, or should we go back to making Christian Bale remixes now? Sorry Joaquin, but coming out with the tag still on your shirt might have been overselling it just a bit.
In Two Lovers, Joaquin Phoenix is caught in a love triangle between Gwyneth Paltrow and Vinessa Shaw. Must be an Isosceles triangle, youknowwhatahmsayin? *holds up fist, looks around for math pound*
As you can see, Vinessa Shaw is pretty hot in spite of her annoying misspelled name. Alternate title for this movie? It’s So Hard to Say Bye Good.
