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Vegan activist Joaquin Phoenix gets back in the saddle for Napoleon - five years after sharing his 'regret' at riding horses for movie roles
Daily Mail ^ | 7 April 2023 | ALISON BOSHOFF

Posted on 04/07/2023 11:27:34 PM PDT by nickcarraway

Ardent vegan activist Joaquin Phoenix finds himself uncomfortably on horseback in the new Napoleon film by British director Ridley Scott.

Indeed, you can see in Phoenix's face just how much he enjoys it.. the answer being, not a lot.

Phoenix will have found himself horribly conflicted when forced to get back in the saddle.

He has been vegan since the age of three and believes that using any animal products — or using animals full stop — is a 'gross abuse of power'.

In 2018 he talked about having to ride horses in The Sisters Brothers — and how he regretted it.

'I didn't really think about it until I was there and realised: "Oh, it's a western and we're on horses a lot."

'I felt bad about riding them. I had the feeling that they were like, "I don't really want you on my back."

When somebody suggested the experience might be mutually enjoyable for rider and mount, Phoenix said: 'Yeah, but the horses tell you something different.'

The Apple TV+ movie will get a cinema release in November. British actress Vanessa Kirby co-stars as 'not tonight' Josephine.

In 2020 Phoenix took to the streets of London in a bid to urge Londoners to embrace a vegan lifestyle as he protested on behalf of animal rights.

The screen star, who just hours later would scooped the coveted Leading Actor trophy at the EE British Academy Film Awards, also tied himself to the city landmark Tower Bridge as he joined forces with activist group Animal Equality.

Showing his commitment to the cause, the Hollywood actor joined fellow protesters as they unfurled a huge 390 square-foot banner over the bridge, which read: 'Factory farming is destroying our planet. Go vegan.'

(Excerpt) Read more at dailymail.co.uk ...


TOPICS: Pets/Animals; TV/Movies
KEYWORDS: joaquinphoenix; vegan
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I guess he can't live up to the courage of his convictions. He believes riding horses is wrong, but he'll do it for a payday.
1 posted on 04/07/2023 11:27:34 PM PDT by nickcarraway
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To: nickcarraway
I had the feeling that they were like, "I don't really want you on my back."

I rode a horse like that once. His name was "Jack". When I kicked him with my heels, he would buck, which was kind of fun. After about an hour riding in the summer heat, I dismounted and walked Jack around to cool him down, all the while patting him, talking to him, my head next to his.

For the rest of the ride Jack was my best buddy.

2 posted on 04/07/2023 11:34:51 PM PDT by Jeff Chandler (THE ISSUE IS NEVER THE ISSUE. THE REVOLUTION IS THE ISSUE.)
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To: nickcarraway

As the Dean in the Rodney Dangerfield’s 1986 film Back to School so aptly put it: “In his defense, it was a really big check.”

F’in hypocrite. Let’s see him donate his salary to his loopy buddies at PETA


3 posted on 04/07/2023 11:38:43 PM PDT by j.havenfarm (22 years on Free Republic, 12/10/22! more then 6500 replies and still not shutting up!)
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To: nickcarraway
Idiot. You're either a rider or you're baggage. He's baggage.

You realize this when you've done it. You care for the beastie, you've fed it, you've groomed it, you've sheltered it in ugly weather and the horse knows it. There is a covenant between our species, the only closer one I'm aware of is between us and dogs. If you're not sensitive to this you've no business around either.

4 posted on 04/07/2023 11:49:19 PM PDT by Billthedrill
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To: nickcarraway

“He has been vegan since the age of three...”

That’s impressive.


5 posted on 04/08/2023 12:31:46 AM PDT by Mr. N. Wolfe
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To: nickcarraway

I rode a horse all day and walked funny for 2 days


6 posted on 04/08/2023 1:25:07 AM PDT by roving (👌⚓)
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To: nickcarraway

“Joker” may have been an easy movie for this guy, he just overplayed a part of himself!.


7 posted on 04/08/2023 1:39:41 AM PDT by Ikeon (I miss the days, when making friends, you could ask you new best buddy " what church do you go to?" )
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To: nickcarraway

Horses are smart enough to get bored, so taking a human along for a ride is hardly torture. If a horse doesn’t want you on his back, he’ll let you know in no uncertain terms.


8 posted on 04/08/2023 1:46:16 AM PDT by skr (Righteousness exalteth a nation: but sin is a reproach to any people. - Proverbs 14:34)
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To: nickcarraway
"...I had the feeling that they were like..."

That's just gas.

9 posted on 04/08/2023 2:22:12 AM PDT by Libloather (Why do climate change hoax deniers live in mansions on the beach?)
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To: Libloather

10 posted on 04/08/2023 2:41:35 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: nickcarraway

I have an aversion to biopics of people who haven’t been dead at least 200 years, and especially to celebrity biopics, but I might make an exception for Joaquin Phoenix. Being raised vegan from the age of three is the least of it. His Wikipedia page is worth reading. A lot of pretty grim stuff, and it’s not all his doing: his parents at least left the cult early, as it was starting to veer off into the sexual crazylands, and that is apparently one of the reasons they left.

His parents had been missionaries in South America and Puerto Rico; both are of European ancestry (Russian and Hungarian Jewish on his mother’s side), but they gave Joaquin an Hispanic name since he was born in Puerto Rico. They changed their surname to Phoenix when they left the cult and wanted to symbolize a new beginning. Joaquin was thus born into unconventional circumstances and walked the edge of the crazylands for a long time before maturing into what appears to be a pretty sober and serious person. The darkness of so many of his roles probably comes naturally. And then there’s his older brother, who has a celebrated star on the Dead Celebrity Junkies’ Walk of Fame.

There could easily have been two Phoenix stars on the Walk of Fame. Joaquin almost incinerated himself after he flipped his car on one of the canyon roads around Hollywood. This was during his young crazy years in the film industry. He was trapped inside and decided to light a cigarette, that being the obvious way to pass the time while pinned upside down with gasoline leaking. A passer-by tapped on the window and asked if he was alright, then advised him to hold off on the cigarette. That person turned out to be Werner Herzog. Lessons learned. If I were going to compare him with someone, it would be Johnny Cash, who he played in Walk the Line (2005).

But I digress.

In my unending search for good news on the movie front, I will recommend Montana Story (2021) for the best un-PETA scenes in recent memory. Erin is a young woman, now 25, who had disappeared seven years before for reasons best left in no spoiler territory. (There is no sexual abuse involved, and no nudity or sex scenes.) She has now mysteriously reappeared, still estranged from both her father, who is in a terminal coma, and her brother, now 22, a recent college grad in civil engineering. The family home is a ranch, about to go into foreclosure.

One thing leads to another, and the ice will thaw to a point at which Erin is ready to tell Cal, her little brother, where she’s been for seven years. She had always loved to cook, so she saved her money, went to culinary school, and is now a cook at a little farm to table restaurant in upstate New York, where she had landed after running away. (An aunt had taken her in and helped her disappear.)

There is a short conversation that shreds so many yuppie liberal pieties — all through indirect hints and wonderfully understated facial expressions — that it is worth watching the movie just for that. Erin and Cal are stranded on the side of the road, waiting for a tow truck. She bums a cigarette off her brother: “It’s not good for the palate, but cooks all seem to smoke ... it confuses people.” Then she tells Cal about the restaurant, a place called Sinew: “It’s supposed to be ironic — tough and strong, not something anyone would actually want to eat .... Our thing is we use the whole animal, snout to tail — you ever heard of that? .... So we kill it, cook it, serve it, all of it ....” The expression on her face is priceless. It’s the first time in the movie that Erin comes out of her shell enough to smile, and the Montana ranch girl obviously finds the pretentions of New York foodies to be utterly ridiculous. But she loves to cook, and she likes the job.

[Some freepers will have seen The Menu, now streaming, which is an over-the-top comedy/horror takedown of elite foodie culture. Erin eviscerates the same targets in 70 seconds, and it’s hilarious because it’s played straight and with humor.]

Then they get home and Erin, now established as a professional cook, sets about rustling up dinner. The father is in a coma, there is almost no food in the house, but there are still chickens out in the coop and Erin knows how to use a knife.

I just rechecked the credits. The film does not have the usual “no animals were harmed” disclaimer. I do know that a local farmer who raised chickens was enlisted to teach the actress how to do it properly. The chickens that made the ultimate sacrifice were then dressed, cooked and eaten by the cast and crew.

This same Erin, by the way, also goes to heroic measures to save an old horse that her brother had been planning to put down, thus demonstrating that she knows the difference between pets and food.

The un-PETA movie of the year.


11 posted on 04/08/2023 3:16:48 AM PDT by sphinx
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To: j.havenfarm

I’ll bet every saddle in the movie is made of leather.


12 posted on 04/08/2023 3:24:13 AM PDT by gundog (It was a bright cold day in April, and the clocks were striking thirteen. )
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To: nickcarraway

He would not regret it if he rode side saddle.


13 posted on 04/08/2023 3:28:07 AM PDT by VRW Conspirator (Socialism should more accurately be called Sociopathism)
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To: nickcarraway

Very good actor. Total nutjob personally.

At least he doesn’t seem to be the hateful type who lashes out at others.


14 posted on 04/08/2023 4:17:50 AM PDT by FLT-bird
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To: skr

Yep, the horse will let you know when he has a problem.
Address his basic needs, don’t stink like a wolf, and there will be mutual respect and benefits.
If horses could think about the alternative they’d surely think we are better than the state of nature.


15 posted on 04/08/2023 4:34:36 AM PDT by Buttons12 ( Do you not think an Angel rides in the Whirlwind and directs this Storm?)
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To: nickcarraway

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8XwxhANneKU

And like J. Phoenix, some horses will do anything for attention.


16 posted on 04/08/2023 4:48:25 AM PDT by Buttons12 ( Do you not think an Angel rides in the Whirlwind and directs this Storm?)
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To: nickcarraway
Saw the first trailer for Napoleon, it was weird, it shows Phoenix walking along a beach, then it switches to scenes from The Duelist, then it shows 2-3 minutes from the 1970s movie Waterloo.
Not sure what Scott is doing or that was just a weird tease.
17 posted on 04/08/2023 5:24:32 AM PDT by Jolla ( )
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To: nickcarraway
Saw the first trailer for Napoleon, it was weird, it shows Phoenix walking along a beach, then it switches to scenes from The Duelist, then it shows 2-3 minutes from the 1970s movie Waterloo.
Not sure what Scott is doing or that was just a weird tease.
18 posted on 04/08/2023 5:27:03 AM PDT by Jolla ( )
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To: nickcarraway

He always looks so healthy.🙄


19 posted on 04/08/2023 6:31:32 AM PDT by Hammerhead
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To: nickcarraway

What a Joker.


20 posted on 04/08/2023 6:40:27 AM PDT by Alas Babylon! (Gov't declaring misinformation is tyranny: “Who determines what false information is?” )
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