★★★★★ 0/5

Trainwreck interview on Letterman

And who is this unbalanced celebrity unable to string a sentence together for David Letterman?

35
Leave a comment

phoenixOh dear. When you go on American chat shows, you really have to have a few good anecdotes up you sleeve.

Y’know, those little stories about what happened at the airport, or preparing for a film….something to let the host bounce off you.

Joaquin Phoenix really didn’t want to play the game. Especially when Dave started to ask him about his beard….

In fact he says he doesn’t really want to act anymore, period. Which is a bit odd given he was there to talk about a new film with Isabella Rossellini and Gwynneth Paltrow, Two Lovers.

What went down was awkward television to say the least, but it didn’t faze Dave, who even ended by saying “I am sorry you couldn’t be here tonight Joaquin.”

Clips are being removed off YouTube but here’s one that currently works.

The View even played clips of Letterman, which means Nine ended up playing clips of TEN shows, a curious situation that often happens with US shows and Aussie networks.

Still on Letterman, he will also feature U2 for an entire week in the first week of March, arguably a stunt to tackle Jimmy Fallon’s new talk show on NBC.

35 Responses

  2. Brilliant work from both players in this piece. Both sides know how effective the medium is, David proving that he is a master once again, Joaquin proving his worth by subverting the genre, and making himself (and Letterman) relevant in the process. All of this commotion because a PR agent has manage to get a slot on letterman for a film that clearly hasn’t got much support (“Selected Cities”) and now will be searched, blogged, written, talked about, googled, twittered, and facebooked for the next week then be relegated to ride the long tail of content for eternity… A beautiful piece of media work!

  3. This was incredible I loved every second of it Dave was great he praised his preformance in this movie and others that he has been in but when he was getting nothing back he just upped the anti and he was so funny! I saw another clip of Joaquin rapping and he fell off the stage, what a shame such a waste of talent. The gum under the table of priceless, I hope he doesn’t end up like his brother River.

  5. “So…how was your time with the Unabomber?”.

    Solid. Gold. Dave.

    Whether it was a publicity stunt, or just another actor with his head stuck up his own derrire, it was really awkward to watch.

    The only time Joaquin seemed remotely interested in the interview was when Letterman asked him about his music. Hip hop? Spare us Joaquin. Please.

  6. It certainly appears that Joachim is in character, he sounded half Irish at the start… perhaps that was just all the mumbling. Either way, it shows the professionalism of Letterman to turn an awkward interview into something entertaining to watch…

  7. It aired in Oz last night.

    Fallon and Letterman won’t go head to head but if he puts U2 at the end of his show it will help lead into Craig Ferguson, who will go head to head. Ferguson is produced by Worldwide Pants.

  11. I can’t believe the credulous tone of this news item. Joaquin Phoenix was clearly having fun, and the result wasn’t awkward so much as it was hilarious.

    Maybe you have to be an introvert or something to understand the banality of talk shows and the dullness of celebrity small talk. Joaquin Phoenix consciously put the tired format on its head. I truly doubt that Letterman wasn’t in on the joke.

  13. Highly unconfortable, yet compelling to watch – just to see if Joaquin would flip out, or just stay in his alleged-drug-addled state.
    Having said that, Letterman’s been through a few of these sort of interviews before and seems to handle it (for the show’s sake) pretty well.
    I did love Paul Shaffer’s laugh when Dave wanted him to set up the clip!
    I’m intrigued to know what Dave would have said to him during the commercial.

    Meanwhile, I’ve noticed that US TV stations seem very relaxed when it comes to showing clips for other networks.

  17. Ted & Ro are correct IMO it was all part of some doco..whether Dave knew about it though who knows. I think perhaps he didn’t but Joaquin let him in on it at the end.

    Whatever it was it was freakin lol tv. I loved the bit where Paul laughed at something Dave said and Joaquin turned and said something to Paul that was bleeped out. Funny stuff!

  20. Wow…..that made for highly uncomfortable viewing.
    Joaquin was not just a boring guest….he crossed the line to down-right rudeness. David Letterman did a good job of trying to keep the interview rolling, and I dont blame him for the sarcastic one-liners he directed towards Joaquin….i think most of them went over Joaquin’s head, anyhow.
    So he is giving up acting and making a move into a singing career? I wonder if he will be any more polite and responsive when he is doing the rounds of talk shows to promote his new song. Letterman pretty much implied that he wouldnt have him back on the show for that purpose…but then again, Letterman is leaving soon, isnt he?? It may not be his call by then.

  21. If you look at the other footage of him entering and exiting the studio, you can see he’s being followed around by a camera crew. It just happens that the cameraman is his brother-in-law Casey Affleck – who surprise surprise is shooting a documentary/movie. Great way to stir up publicity!

  23. “I’ll come to your house and chew gum.”

    That was incredibly awkward to view and there was a lot of tension between Joaquin and Dave. I thought the Nicole Kidman interview looked bad until I saw this.

Leave a Reply