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Joaquin Phoenix is the first to admit his new film Beau Is Afraid is maybe a bit weird… but that’s okay. In the film Phoenix plays a guy named Beau, and the premise is straightforward: A man with severe anxiety ventures off to visit his mother to be by her side on the anniversary of the death of the father he never met. That journey – or adventure, or odyssey, or mind-melt, or whatever you want to call it – is up for all kinds of interpretation, as Beau quite literally travels through his worst fears on the way to confront his past, present and future self.
“There's so much trouble in the world, and we're so scared of everything. Things that are real and that aren't real -- and frightened of people who are desperate and in need,” Phoenix told us during a recent conversation at a theater in New York City, where he had just wrapped filming the sequel to Joker, Joker: Folie à Deux, the previous day. “[Beau] is just so afraid that he doesn't even recognize [any of] that, and it’s really quite an indictment of how we look at the world right now in some ways. Right? We're so frightened. There are things that scare us, and we lack empathy.”
What, exactly, is Beau afraid of? Well… everything, really. Before Beau can even begin his trip to see mom, he is hit by a car and taken in by an odd husband and wife played by Nathan Lane and Amy Ryan. “I really just try not to laugh working with Nathan Lane,” Phoenix told us. “That’s all I do, every day. Just try not to laugh.” Watch an exclusive clip below featuring Beau’s first encounter with the Good Samaritans.
Joaquin Phoenix on… The Best Way To Experience Beau Is Afraid
Beau Is Afraid is the third feature film from writer-director Ari Aster, and it’s perhaps his most ambitious. It doesn’t necessarily play like a horror movie, but it certainly feels like one at times. It’s also Aster’s funniest film, too – an anxiety-inducing rollercoaster ride that confronts the feeling of being isolated, alone and on your own to fend for yourself, while also poking fun at the ridiculous tricks our minds play on us when under duress. Is Beau really going on this weird, insane odyssey, or is what we’re watching a projection of his own over-embellished anxiety? Whatever it is that’s happening in the film, Phoenix recommends watching it in IMAX.
“If you can, that’s the way to f**king see it!,” he exclaimed while describing the first time he watched Beau Is Afraid as an audience member. “I was definitely squirming in my seat. First of all, I’m just laughing about the entire f**king movie. There’s a couple of sequences where I’m just squirming – I mean, stuff that [Ari] did with the sound design, it was really great. It’s such a rich world, and there’s so many details to see in it. It is a hundred percent a movie that you feel. There’s so many rich, complex themes in this film, but it’s such a visceral experience to watch it. Then you leave, and when that feeling subsides, you start thinking about it.”
Whatever you do and however you decide to experience Beau Is Afraid, Phoenix does have one warning… don’t take mushrooms. “I was told from someone in college that there was this college thread amongst friends, a challenge they were going to take mushrooms and go see this movie. And I just wanted to make a public service announcement and say, do not take mushrooms and go see this f**king movie.”
Phoenix paused for a beat, then joked, “But if you do it, film yourself. But don’t do it!”
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Joaquin Phoenix on… Collaborating with Ari Aster
With the success of his first two films, Hereditary and Midsommar, Ari Aster has quickly become one of the most exciting storytellers of the era. His films are memorable and at times shocking, taking the audience on a ride that may not make sense upon a first viewing, but it sticks with you. It haunts you. It’s something you won’t be able to stop thinking about. “He's deeply sensitive, and he cares, and he's f**king funny,” Phoenix said when asked about working with Aster. “He's just irreverent. Just the most wicked sense of humor, which I really appreciate. He's so f**king hardworking. This dude doesn't stop.”
When it came to early conversations about the film and the character of Beau, Phoenix recalled he and Aster talking a lot … about hair. “Honestly, the truth is, so much of it, you're just having conversations,” he said. “In our first ten conversations, in eight of them, probably an hour was dedicated to the hair. For some reason, we were just obsessed with trying to find the right hair. And then we just started playing. I had somebody come over and we wanted this specific look, and so we just started playing with that. Then it's just talking about wardrobe. I was like, "What f**king works for this guy? So tough." And I showed them my acid wash jeans, and then just these clothes that didn't fit... And he just slowly starts telling you, yes, this is the direction. Or no, that's not it. You just figure it out.”
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Joaquin Phoenix on… Playing For The Audience
The thing you remember most about Beau Is Afraid is the way it feels. At around three hours long, the film about one man’s odyssey quite literally feels like an odyssey for the audience. You feel every punch and scrape and body blow throughout, while Phoenix’s chaotically relatable performance continually draws you closer to the chaos within us. We asked Phoenix if he thinks about the audience and what they feel while watching one of his performances…
“No. It's a purely selfish endeavor for me,” he admits. “I think bad acting is when you are trying to show somebody something. You're trying to lead someone towards a feeling. That's when you get bad acting, and I've done it. When it's so important that somebody understands what I'm feeling. So I try, I think successfully, to not let that enter my mind. It's really just about my experience. I can't think about it as a film and an audience watching it. For me, that's the best way to approach it.”
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Joaquin Phoenix on… Playing Men Who Are Broken Inside
This is one of three films we’ll see Joaquin Phoenix star in over the next two years. In addition to Beau Is Afraid, he is also set to star as Napoleon Bonaparte in a film directed by Ridley Scott, due out later this year, as well as the much-anticipated sequel to 2019’s Joker, Joker: Folie à Deux, due out in 2024. In all of these films, Phoenix is playing men who are disturbed and unhinged. They are essentially broken, and sometimes they remain that way when we leave them as the credits roll.
“It's just drama. I mean, you play somebody that's well adjusted, it's f**king boring,” Phoenix joked. “What do you do? A romantic comedy? I just don't think that could sustain me for what I like to do. I just feel like, yeah… I don't know what genre of music, but you're just like, yeah, I want it hard, f**kin' get it. Because it's enjoyable. You know what I mean? I love the complexity of that.”
There’s complexity, sure, but according to Phoenix the key ingredient is, surprisingly, love.
“Somebody told me recently that Marlon Brando was talking about the Don Corleone, and he said that the way that he approached the character was with love, that he loved him,” he said. “And this immediately struck me, because I think that's how I've always felt about the characters that I played. I just approach them not as troubled, but as someone that I love that I'm curious about, that I want to get to know, and that whatever they're feeling is okay. I don't judge it. The experience I think audiences will have with some of the characters I’ve played and my [own experience] are very different, because when people go, like, "Oh, I was so scared of that person, I hated you in that thing." I go, "What do you want?" I literally don't understand. I’m just not super judgmental.”
Beau Is Afraid is in theaters now. Get tickets right here at Fandango.
