The extreme vulnerability of Joaquin Phoenix

Looking at his last four projects, it seems that Phoenix perfected his precise working formula – hyper-ambitious, complex-to-realise films from directors he has worked with before, who also have the luxury to enjoy both studio trust and a degree of creative freedom. While this applies to Todd Phillips, it seems more relevant to his collaborations with Ari Aster as he plays two different roles rather than reprising one. The magnetism to fear, shame, and neurosis makes Aster and Phoenix an ideal match – a collaboration that reveals startling new dimensions of both their talents. In the surreal Freudian tale Beau Is Afraid, Phoenix plays a man psychologically shattered by his mother, struggling to reach her while traversing the shifting landscapes of his tormented mind. Exposing a sensitivity that verges on the paranoiac level, captured in relentless close-ups, he also delivers physically demanding sequences reminiscent of Buster Keaton – sprinting through forests in pyjamas under gunfire, radiating the existential dread that underpins every Aster narrative. 

Those ideals would unlikely have come to life if precisely Joaquin hadn’t shown such dedication and trust in this truly insane idea. The same applies to Ridley Scott’s epics, where Joaquin, having once played the petulant, infantile emperor in Gladiator (2000), returns to collaborate with the director on long-dreamed Napoleon (2023), dissolving into a heavier, more solemn figure, shaped through gestures, glances, and speech patterns, surrounded by the massive set. Similarly, his return to Joker: Folie à Deux (2024) involved yet another extreme transformation, now incorporating singing and a hint of romanticism alongside his already dramatic weight fluctuation in those years. Beau is Afraid, Napoleon and Joker: Folie à Deux, with their grand ideas and not always realistic expectations of audiences, demanded large budgets and the full commitment of actors, but ultimately faced mixed critical reception and underwhelming box office results. Nevertheless, Phoenix chose to work with Aster again, signing on to Eddington in 2023.

In the world of Eddington’s mental collapse, Phoenix plays a sheriff worn down by the rules of Covid, who decides to assert his own version of the truth. While Beau is Afraid demanded an immediate physical and psychological extremes, here all begins with the exposure of deep fear and social humiliation, which, in synchronously with the film, goes nuts, making Phoenix run through complicated mise-en-scènes in full madness, escaping his own death, and trying to realise Ari’s aspiration anew. 

Beyond the fact that his performance in his latest films often surpasses the ideas envisioned by directors, there is something deeper connecting them: the director’s access to freedom on set, earned through trust built from past success. In return, he can improvise in crucial scenes, rewrite the script alongside the director, or suddenly begin yelling on set to push himself into a needed condition, and everywhere, undergo physical changes and challenges. Joaquin is also often described as an actor who trusts his intuition. While this is usually said of his performances, it seems to shape his choice of roles too, giving him the freedom to make sudden, dramatic decisions – like his infamous last-minute drop-out from Todd Haynes’s gay western romance, pulled just five days before filming, a move the actor later explained as ​‘cold feet’.

For Joaquin, the often vague idea of creative freedom translates into a straightforward liberty on set – an openness to rawness and intuition, the very qualities he revealed in himself under an indie director, when his vulnerability was at the beginning of the evolution. Though he no longer appears in films by emerging directors with low budgets, he seems to search for those that retain a touch of independence, in directors’ openness to risky experiments and in moments where Joaquin can be spontaneous. In order to maintain his devoted acting approach to character study and physical transformation, Joaquin continues an active search for a visionary director who’s willing to go to new places with him. Phoenix’s decision to reunite with Aster so soon appears to reflect the very qualities that define their collaboration. In interviews, Joaquin speaks of Aster as a very strict director who, in an era when everything must be predetermined, is talented enough to allow himself to be spontaneous. In return for these luxuries, Phoenix is willing to offer his extreme vulnerability.