Joaquin Phoenix seems to want his vegan cake and eat it, too. He would like to be paid by you, Mr. Producer, to act in your major motion picture, but when you ask him to do the award show circuit song and dance in support of the major motion picture, he’d rather not. Or as he explains it to Interview magazine:
“I don’t believe in it…It’s a carrot, but it’s the worst-tasting carrot I’ve ever tasted in my whole life. I don’t want this carrot. It’s totally subjective. Pitting people against each other…It’s the stupidest thing in the whole world.”
<chomp chomp> Mehhh…What’s with the carrot fixation there, Doc? <chomp, chomp>
Dude, you’re an actor acting in movies and, because you’re an actor, someone somewhere may give you an acting award for how well they thought you acted when you pretended to be another person in a movie that you acted in. If an acting award is bestowed upon you, yes, you’re right, it will be subjective. Someone(s) will have liked your “pretending to be someone else” performance (i.e., acting) a little more than someone else’s. This is not the big deal you’re making it out to be. This isn’t “I think Iran has nukes, what should we do?” type stuff. You were paid a good deal of money to teach in a public school ACT IN A MOVIE. And now the people that paid you for that privilege may ask you to walk silly little red carpets for a few months. Show BIDNESS, partner. Suck it up.
I get the argument that, as Artists, some actors find Awards shows demeaning to their Profession and to the Craft (capital letters sarcastically intended.) How do you reward Art? But the reality is that an award given to a movie or an actor in a movie will usually mean more tickets sold for that movie. Which means more money to the movie studio. And the movie studio will then have more money to pay Joaquin Phoenix to professionally pretend to be another person in a movie. A nice little way to make a living, I’d think.
Um, yeah, if this is your day at the office, Joaquin, I’m happy to trade places with you.
About Justin
