Joaquin Phoenix Quotes
Actor
No, I don't want to talk about River. I have nothing to say about it that I would want to be public.
My significant other right now is myself, which is what happens when you suffer from multiple personality disorder and self-obsession.
If you walk into a room and one hundred people say, 'You are a lovely, beautiful person', who isn't going to be affected by that? But you have to tell yourself not to value that. You have to tell yourself - or at least I do - to not become accustomed to hearing applause in any way, because I think that's dangerous.
Acting is real important to me. I love it, and it's something I care about.
I'm incredibly lazy!
I love having a master. I have no problem serving my director. That's my job. I want to make them happy.
You're always thinking, What's the next move - the career, the money.
I had a really wonderful upbringing. We were a tight family. It was wonderful to grow up with so many siblings. We were all just a year or two apart, and we were always so supportive of each other. I learned everything from my older brother and sister and taught it to my younger sisters.
When I go out with the ladies, I don't force them to pronounce my name. I tell them I like to go by the nickname of Kitten.
It's hard for me to put my feelings into words.
I enjoy humour more than anything, I don't really sit around banging my head and crying all the time.
I didn't know much about him, and I wasn't a big country music fan. I listened to the Beatles and David Bowie, so I didn't know a lot about him.
Things are rarely as exciting or dramatic as we make them out to be in the press.
You see so many earnest characters in movies all the time, everyone has a purpose.
I've made up so many stores about my name, I can't remember.
Well, I think that you know, I threatened myself with quitting after every movie. But I think everybody does that, right?
I feel like everything you learn as an actor growing up is wrong. You're supposed to hit your mark, find your light and know your lines. Those are all things that just make things wooden, dull and boring.
It's an amazing feeling to go into a studio and really be alone.
My music is going to be true. I'm not out to sell records. I'm experiencing something, and it's what I feel.
I don't walk around like I'm a movie star because I don't think of myself as a movie star. People usually don't even notice me.
I'm vomiting days before I start shooting a new movie.
I still think that movies are amazing; I respect actors and directors.
I feel an obligation to set the record straight. Actors that say they're affected by something, that it changes their life, that they take it home with them, they're just trying to get nominated for an Oscar!
In every film, whether it's a fictional character or not, you create an idea of the character and for me I always do a bad impersonation to start with.
I always have the fear that, if I don't commit 100 percent to my work, then it's gonna suffer.
I guess I had what you could call an unconventional upbringing.
Once I became a total buffoon, it was so liberating.
I know if I'm lost in the moment or not.
The reason I keep making movies is I hate the last thing I did. I'm trying to rectify my wrongs.
Every movie soaks into you for a certain amount of time.
I becan acting when River was doing this TV series and they needed two kids for the show, so they got me and my little sister, Summer, to do it. After that I did some really weird guest spots with orangutans and stuff.
I guess my experience with some stuff is kind of abstract.
When I look back I can't believe how my parents managed, but the cliche is true. We didn't have money, but we were rich in so many other ways.
I don't know why I always get to play these guys who have few redeeming features. But don't knock it. Villains are much more fun.
I don't spend most of my life in front of the media.
In most films - especially in regards to the protagonist - really from the get-go they set up some scenario that endears that character to the audience. Or imbues him with some nobility or heroism or something.
I've always loved music, but I never really played anything. After 'Walk the Line' and learning to play guitar, and having that sense of performing, I think that certainly opened the door for me, for music.
For me, I guess I'm the acting equivalent of somebody that jumps off buildings and parachutes.
Going out on a stage publicly and not knowing how people are going to react to you - once I experienced that, it made me feel much more comfortable about going into a scene.
You can take that 'I'm an artiste' stuff to the wrong extreme, too.
I've worked with a lot of people on music and often times those things don't work out.
I'm not technical.
I have this horrible sense of humor where I think discomfort is funny - partly because I experience discomfort a lot, and it's a way of laughing at it and getting a release.
The only reason why I would like to be accepted? Because if your movies don't do well, after a while you don't get to make any more movies.
With public figures involved in a relationship it seems that there is a machine behind their love so oftentimes.
I don't really make movies because I want to see my face on a billboard or because I want to get good reviews or have a big box office. That doesn't really matter to me at all.
I just I don't feel challenged by acting anymore. I don't enjoy the process anymore.
I wish I had fair justification for not being as informed as I should be, but I don't.
I wouldn't feel satisfied being on set every day doing a romantic comedy - I'd be bored to death.
I've always loved hip-hop, since I was a kid, that's the music that I loved. I think everyone of our generation kind of fantasized about hip-hop in some ways.
For me, I'd rather have an intense experience than not.
Whether you think a film will affect society or it's plain entertainment, it's all excellent, it's all noble.
I don't bring my life into a character at all.
My parents were just searching for an alternative way of raising their children.
I never prepare. I think that's completely overrated. It's a very simple job. All you have to do is hit this bright mark, stand in the right spot and say the line. So I don't really believe in preparation.
Sometimes a character is really based on research that you do. Other times it's just based on your imagination or perhaps your conversation with the director. Or sometimes all of the above. It depends on the movie and character.
I'd see child actors and I'd get so jealous, because they're just completely wide open.
I would try and sing along with bands that I like but it sounded so atrocious that I couldn't.
There was a time when I read a script and I just got excited about the possibilities.
Well, I haven't signed anything giving people the right to do anything they want with my image, you know what I mean. I have the ultimate say.
I don't know a single person in life that doesn't have conflict.
When I decide to do something, I stick with it, total commitment.
I don't think one should be comfortable standing on a stage with people applauding and laughing at every stupid thing you say.
Might I be ridiculous? Might my career in music be laughable? Yeah, that's possible, but that's certainly not my intention.
I once told a journalist that girls call me 'Kitten,' but I couldn't have been more sarcastic, and no matter how many times I've said that it was a joke, it still doesn't go away.
I think the day that I become comfortable doing interviews and going on talk shows is the day that I don't know what it is to be a human being anymore.
I loved hip-hop. The first stuff I heard was Public Enemy, and I couldn't believe it. It was amazing, and I've always loved hip-hop.
I mean, I don't like sitting at a table with seven or eight people asking me questions and kind of listening to what I'm doing - scrutinizing my thoughts and things like that. I just don't like it. I can't understand how anyone would.
There are kids who get on a BMX bike when they're eight years old and they go, 'Whoa, this is incredible,' and grow up to do extreme sports. It's the same for me with acting.