Casey Affleck has admitted buddy Joaquin Phoenix’s erratic behavior — the beard, the retirement from acting, the promised hip-hop career — was a put-on for his now-released mockumentary I’m Still Here. And now an interview with Late Show with David Letterman writer Bill Scheft, published in Indianapolis’ indie paper Nuvo last year, reveals that Dave was in on the joke when he did the notorious crash-and-burn interview with Phoenix last year, during which the actor stuck his gum under the desk, mumbled answers amid awkward silences, and generally lacked any sense of consciousness or humor. “Think Andy Kaufman without shaving,” Scheft said. “That’s what he was doing. And Dave knew about it and Dave loved it because he could play along. He could do whatever he wanted with it. And he did, and it was great television. But I will take credit for the line, ‘I think I owe Farrah Fawcett an apology.’ That line was mine. I gave that to him during the break.”
Watching it back again, you can sorta tell Dave’s got a few too many zinger lines like that at the ready:
Other possibly telltale signs?
* The insane hyperbole with which Dave repeatedly hypes the tiny indie movie Phoenix is ostensibly there to promote, Two Lovers. A way to highlight Phoenix’s great “fall” from rarefied heights of respected actor-dom to crazytown? An attempt to make sure the movie got its due despite the insanity of its star? Not sure, but he laid it on awfully thick before the actor graced the stage (at about the :30 mark here), an odd choice, to be sure: “What a fine piece of work,” he said, then continued: “This was just a lovely, nice, well-acted, interesting story, very insightful, a beautifully done film…It opens on Friday in selected cities. I just pray to God your city has been selected.” I wish they’d used that last bit as a blurb in the ads — it’s classic.
* Is that another of Phoenix’s “nervous tics” when his mouth twitches around 3:05 (in response to Dave’s question, “What can you tell us about your days as the Unabomber?”), or is he stifling a hint of laughter?
* Around 9:10, as they cut to the clip of the movie, Phoenix checks on his gum to make sure it’s sticking underneath the desk, which seems an odd thing to do for a guy who acted impetuously in sticking it there a minute earlier.
* Their whole interaction at the end as it cuts to a commercial — Dave saying “Good job” and shaking his hand, Phoenix taking his sunglasses off to signal the end of performance. Might be the clearest indication of their collaboration.
Though it should be noted, we believed Dave was nothing more than an innocent victim at the time. Congrats, Dave, for holding your own, acting-wise, against a two-time Academy Award nominee who was in the greatest movie of all eternity, Two Lovers.
What do you think when you watch this clip now, PopWatchers? Any other clues you noticed?
This is another example of the phoney that is David Letterman. Jay would never have done this, or harrased his staff. Time for Dave to go!
JAjajaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaa!! Loser
“Jay would never have done this”
You’re exactly right Jersey Jeff. Leno doesn’t have the balls to do something like that.
True, Jay would have never done this. But you say that like it’s a compliment to Leno. Given the chance, Carson (back in the day) and Conan would have totally been on board.
Yeah, Jay never routinely tells every guest how awesome their crappy movies are when they’re on his show to promote them – that guy is the epitome of talk show honesty and character.
comparing jay to dave is like comparing the monkeys to the beatles.
Yeah, the moment when Joaquin starts to crack a smile, and when he immediately takes his sunglasses off and shakes Dave’s hand at the end tipped me off long ago that the whole thing was a hoax. Add to that the fact that his brother-in-law was making a documentary about his “new career”, and I just didn’t buy it.
I disagree with your statement about Joaquin’s movie Two Lovers-It is a very lovely, insightful movie. I understand what your trying to say about Dave using a whole of hyperbole to describe the movie, but it is in fact a lovely movie and more people should check it out. Also, I do agree that this time around Joaquin’s interview seemed more like a performance than the first time around. I also did notice that he took his glasses off at the end and I had not noticed that the first time.
I caught the “Good job” moment when I first saw it and I knew right then and there that it was a hoax Letterman was in on.
Yeah, I’m with Nerwen (a sentence I’ve never written before-thx!).
Oh, and Dave almost always asks people to pray to God that their city is selected for limited release movies.
Well, it’s bordering on Andy Kaufmann, who carried his “performance art” so far, that when he actually fell ill and was in a wheelchair, I was convinced it was still part of the “act” – until he actually died. So Joaquin might want to be a bit careful.
Who cares! I mean really, enough all ready…
Ain’t buying it. Think they are tryind to do damage control on Joaquin’s career because this movie got bad reviews, with many saying they cringed for him. So think it did not play out like Casey and Joaquin thought so now they are trying so salvage it by saying “hey everybody it’s a joke”/
Joke or not it still did major damage to Joaquin’s rep…can anybody ever look at him without thinking “loser, drug addict, weirdo, a sad pathetic, attention getting crazy soul”?? Count me as one who no longer can. Funny how they are retracting it very soon after it came out instead of letting the “hoax” play out longer, hmm. me things this likely was the REAL Joaquin.
This time I think it’s obvious Dave is acting. Joaquin on the other hand, I mean I’m still not convinced the guy isn’t just bonkers in general, so he doesn’t seem like he’s acting to me.
Great TV…anyone “wounded” by it needs a reality check.
It’s funny, watching this now it does indeed seem obvious that they’re doing a bit together, something planned. Not that I would put Letterman down for that or call him phony – as Jack said, it’s still great TV.
I think it took a hell of a lot of guts for JP to put his life on hold for two years and risk his reputation for a project like this. Hats off to him for not sticking to the usual fake Hollywood image-control formula.
I’ve been a fan of Dave for the longest time, but finding out about this was truly dissapointing. Makes me wonder if there have been other ‘fixed’ interviews, which would be a complete turn-down.
You must be joking. Every interview is fixed on a talk show. An actor doesn’t just walk in and say, “Oh, so I’ve got this funny story.” Their agents tell the host what to ask them before they ever go on stage. Everything is prepared beforehand. As far as staging goes, this was pretty freaking awesome. I love that Dave had the guts to do this. He really is a lot of fun.
I bet Joachim comes out of this on top… can you imagine how many people will want to go see the next NORMAL movie he does? It certainly got him a lot of attention.
LOVE Dave.. put-on interviews and sketches are what makes a host keep things spicy and enjoy their job!! Please, if it was all “okay, tell me about this new movie/CD/fragrance” we’d never watch. This WAS great TV, and I think Letterman is the best interviewer on TV right now, I truly do.
Compare any of your favorite stars in an interview with him vs. Jay or Conan… he gets more story, more interesting info, more TRUE laughs (not just thinking, “oh that was funny”).