Is He Quitting or Just Acting?
Apparantly, Joaquin Pheonix is quiting acting.
Best known for his role in films like “Gladiator”, “The Village” and his Oscar-nominated turn as Johnny Cash in “Walk The Line”, the younger brother of the late River Pheonix is retiring at 34.
His last performance will be in “Two Lovers, opposite Gwyneth Paltrow. At a premiere of the film Sunday night, the words “Good Bye!” were scrawled across his knuckles, and while he hid behind a scruffy beard and Ray-Ban sunglasses, he proudly forced his fists forward for the flashbulbs.
At first, i thought, “Why make the announcement at all? Just quit and everyone will figure it out.” Then i saw the picture of him with awry facial hair and his permanent marker farewell and i thought, “He’s acting out just like a 17-year-old would do. All he’s doing is loudly announcing his retirement to draw attention to what he will be doing, music. It’s a publicity stunt.”
But when i read a simple sentence from an interview he did before the American Film Institute festival this past weekend, it swayed my opinion a bit.
“I think it’s just moving on. It’s rediscovering something else.”
Pop culture’s remarkably good at putting an artist, an actor, a performer into a box and confining them in that space. We want them to be this one certain thing. But what if they don’t want to be that? I guess Pheonix doesn’t, and he has every right to be something different, to discover something else.
What do you think about Pheonix putting down the Oscar hopes and movie scripts for the musicians life? Do you think he’s really moving on or just acting?
Tags: american film institute festival, farewell, film, gladiator, goodbye, gwyneth palrow, joaquin pheonix, johnny cash, movie scripts, music, musician, oscar-nominated, pop culture, premiere, publicity stunt, retirement, river pheonix, the village, two lovers, walk the line
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