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[jay-ell]

If you've seen this interview, you might wonder what he's on (and where you can get some).  But if you go back to August 2004, you can see that his interview skills have never quite been up to snuff.  He's described this way:

In person, Phoenix is soft-spoken yet articulate, though he clearly doesn’t enjoy talking about himself. (Weaver had suggested as much beforehand: “I’m actually surprised that he’s doing an interview because he’s not the most gregarious person in the world.”)

He fidgets his way through the interview, smoking a succession of American Spirit cigarettes and stamping them out in a jammed ashtray (though he’s gentlemanly enough to ask whether you mind if he smokes). Sitting on the edge of a couch in a hotel suite, he rolls and unrolls the sleeves of his black button-down shirt, runs his fingers through his dark, wavy hair and looks away for long stretches while answering questions.

Could he be on the autism spectrum?  Many people with Asperger's are phenomenal actors because they are so observant and have to spend so much time studying how other people express themselves, and because they are often good memorizers who are comfortable with following a script.  And Joachim's manner in the Letterman interview reminds me of the kids I know with autism -- the ones who are verbal, at least.  People with Asperger's often share similiar verbal tics. 

If the dude had given normal interviews in the past and then suddenly had a weird freak-out on Letterman, I'd say "definitely drugs."  But the dude's brother OD'd in '93, which makes me think he's more likely to avoid drugs than the average actor.  And he never *did* give normal interviews -- even four years ago, journalists were commenting on his odd manner -- and that's in a one-on-one, not a live TV broadcast in front of a live audience.  Dude was probably super-rattled. 

What do you think?  As someone who's never heard of the dude 'til this week, maybe I'm misreading him.  There are a lot of people saying his behavior is a hoax, but unless it's been five years in the making, I'm not convinced. 

[lprkn]

I guess I really don't know much about Asperger's. I just would have attributed such behavior to innate shyness, or a problem with being comfortable around strangers.

As for the Letterman thing, I have heard the hoax rumors as well, and I buy into them totally. I'm not saying that the dude don't have the Asperger's, but it looks like he's just taking his usual behavior to the nth degree.

[milhouse]

I know a moderate amount about about Asperger's and while Joaquin may be that way, I don't think that's the explanation for the Letterman deal. If it was severe to cause that behavior he would have been more twitchy or just bailed on the whole thing. At least that's where my research has led me. Dude was either in a different place mentally or acting.

[jaydub]

I'm just glad there's a new candidate for weird interview behavior to challenge Crispin Glover.

[miles]

And that would support the hoax theory, because wasn't Glover performing in character, also? The other time, too?

[littlefallsmets]

I dunno, I tend to think that Glover was more a case of a legitimately weird dude becoming aware of his own weirdness and consciously exaggerating something that is basically real, for effect and for attention. I know because, uh, we can smell our own. Whereas Phoenix seems to more and more be a straight-up performance piece/publicity stunt.

[miles]

Yeah, you're right about that. Crispin Glover's performances grew out of his strangeness. He wasn't faking it. Glover is lovably weird, too, and I just kind of wanted to bitch slap Joaquin when I saw his interview.

[Arachno-capitalist]

As someone who's never heard of the dude 'til this week, maybe I'm misreading him.  There are a lot of people saying his behavior is a hoax, but unless it's been five years in the making, I'm not convinced. 

Wait what? You never saw Gladiator, Walk The Line, Signs, Ladder 49, The Village, Hotel Rwanda, or We Own the Night?

Also, he gave a completely normal interview the same day as the Letterman show: http://www.cinemablend.com/new.php?id=11992
"Phoenix gave us all a pretty great interview, with intelligent insight on music and why hip-hop seemed to be an obvious new career direction for him. There was one moment when he lashed back, when someone suggested that what he was doing wasn't genuine. Otherwise, though, you may find yourself completely surprised at the sanity of the man at the center of a hugely public "breakdown."

I think there is more drugs than autism at work here.

[pmcd9]

Well it's pretty effective I must say.  I almost read that interview.  But then I was all like woah woah woah what the fuck are you doing reading an interview with Joaquin Phoenix?

So yeah, it's almost certainly a stunt.  If he were truly in that state they wouldn't have put him on.

Dave Letterman has a long history of this sort of thing.

[wombat]

Some opinions from some experts, from the Washington Post.

Oh, Joaquin. It's been an antic few months for the Oscar nominee, who was poised on the brink of first-name-only superstardom -- before announcing he's quit acting to pursue a career as a rapper.

From there: He grew a bushy homeless-guy beard, started moping around in dark shades. Gave a weird Las Vegas performance -- brief, incoherent, before he fell off the stage. That now-infamous David Letterman interview -- halting, spacey, unresponsive. Wednesday night in Miami, he took the stage four hours late, disheveled, rapped unintelligibly -- then jumped into the crowd to confront a heckler. Security guards hustled Phoenix out.

Is Joaquin Phoenix really in a meltdown? Or is this a shtick, a gag, an ingenious publicity stunt? We consulted a panel of D.C. professionals who would know: actors.

They agree: It's an act. Here's why.

Kate Debelack (of Shakespeare Theatre's "Ion"): "It's sooo staged. It's only happening when there are video cameras present. He's got a specific way of moving that's different than what we've seen of him before -- it's very much a character. ... He dropped character a bit: He laughed back at Letterman, then immediately went back to being sullen."

Casie Platt (of Signature Theatre's "The Little Dog Laughed"): "I noticed as [the interview] was over, Joaquin stood up with his back to the cameras, took off his glasses, and with a smirk shook Letterman's hand, and Dave seemed in on the joke. ... This is the perfect way to market a movie long before it comes out."

Jason Linkins (of Rorschach Theatre; media writer for the Huffington Post): "I'd say Phoenix is doing an all-right job keeping this act of his airtight ... but he's basically just walking around, acting really convincingly addled, and that's just not that hard."

http://voices.washingtonpost.com/reliable-source/2009/03/rs-phoenix13.html