It’s Joaquin Phoenix being Joaquin Phoenix. He’s kind of like Andy Kaufman: it’s a joke only he is really in on. That’s been my take ever since his mondo bizarre appearance on David Letterman some years back.
“He’s kind of like Andy Kaufman: it’s a joke only he is really in on.”
Yep, pretty much. He was filming a totally absurd fake documentary at the time so he was “in character” during the interview, but the problem was that he didn’t tell Letterman or anyone else that until like 6 months later when the film was coming out, so everyone thought he was nuts.
I watched the movie, it was hit-or-miss. There were some really hilarious parts, and some really cringey parts, but yeah, very Kaufman-esque.