I really enjoyed pulling together this profile of Joaquin Phoenix, who has an affinity for lost souls. His Oscar-nominated turns as a conniving Roman emperor in “Gladiator,” country-music legend Johnny Cash in “Walk the Line,” and a disturbed World War II veteran in “The Master” have little in common on paper. Yet he imbues each with a haunted yearning – a quality on full display in “Her,” now out in limited release.
The National Board of Review recently named “Her” the Best Film of 2013, and Oscar buzz is growing. Phoenix, 39, has received a Golden Globe nomination for his painfully vulnerable performance as Theodore Twombly, a divorced writer who falls for a voice – “Samantha,” his computer’s operating system (played by Scarlett Johansson). Spike Jonze (“Adaptation”) wrote and directed the film, opening wide in January.
“Joaquin Phoenix anchors the picture with a low-key and mournful star turn that never descends into self-pity,” said Forbes, calling the film “a creative and empathetic gem of a movie” that “explores the nature of human connection in a world where there are evermore distractions for our attention.”
Phoenix is notoriously mercurial in interviews (“to spend time with Phoenix is to come away impressed by the open throttle of his emotions,” one writer notes), and he dislikes the subjectivity of accolades. “I never want to have that experience again,” he once said of the awards season around “Walk the Line,” calling it “one of the most uncomfortable periods of my life.”
Rather, he’s searching in his roles as much as his characters are, hungry for a truth he finds tough to articulate. “I just want to be open and receptive to what’s happening in the moment, and I don’t want to force anything. Dishonesty is so ugly on film,” he’s said. “I don’t know exactly what I’m after — it’s just a feeling that I’m chasing and I don’t know what it is. But I think the only way I really get it is by feeling that there’s no real control and that there’s a certain amount of danger.”