Joaquin Phoenix interviewed by Christopher Heard on 'Real to Reel', Rogers Cable Channel 10, Toronto, September 14, 2000

Joaquin in Toronto for 'The Yards' premiere

Christopher Heard: Joaquin Phoenix was also here.... Now, I must admit he was a
bit of a handful at first. It looked like trouble. He was tired and he was -- 'running on
empty' was his quote. But you go with that and you let him come to you. By the end, we
were conversing quite voluminously about the movie [The Yards]...right out the door and
he's still taking as we're walking down the hall!

Start of interview.

CH: The street fight that you have with Mark Wahlberg --

Joaquin: Mmmm (nodding)

CH: I spent a lot of years in the martial arts and that's what it looks like. It doesn't look like
you see in a lot of films. And that sort of defines the movie when you're watching -- you
think, OK, this feels real to me.

Joaquin: It certainly has an authentic feel and it is authentic. It's really a lot of James Gray's
[the director's]  experiences growing up and people that he knew. That was really important
to us as actors, something that we just developed in rehearsal. It was a really amazing,
somewhat unconventional rehearsal process because normally you go in, you kind of get to
know each other, you read through the script a lot. And we didn't read from the script that
much, which was surprising to me. And we started -- James would sit with me, Mark,
Charlize. And he would just bring up a topic that seemed to come out of left field and just
kind of rope us into a conversation. And the second day, I realized that we were discussing
a lot of themes of the film. And it was brilliant, because what I realized in retrospect was
that what he was doing was creating this atmosphere of total honesty, which is kind of a
given, you know, something you need. You love to have that relationship with the director,
with the other actors and feel secure. But particularly in a film like this, which is very
emotional -- to feel that kind of safety. You know, James was 29 when we made the
movie. And he seemed so together and confident. And, you know, I'd say, "God, James, I
don't know...I'm so nervous. I don't know what I'm going to do yet. They're gonna think
I'm a fraud. I'm not from New York. I'm not this guy." He says, "Don't worry. I won't let
you be bad." And no one had ever really said that to me. You know, I've kind of had
directors laugh me off...But, you know, he seemed so certain and so secure in his ability
that of course it filled me with a great sense of confidence.

CH: This guy that you play in The Yards. Do you decide going in if you like him or not?
Or does it matter?

Joaquin: Doesn't matter.

CH: Did you?

Joaquin: It's not about liking. It's about understanding.

CH: Is he a good guy who's wired a little wrong or is he a bad guy that's trying to find
some goodness?

Joaquin: I don't think he's either. I don't think he's wired wrong. I think, you know, he's
misguided. It's very sad to me. What really drew me to this film and to this character -- I
thought it really spoke about my generation and this generation of broken families, broken
homes, raised by single parents or virtually no parents. And we have -- basically, we have
misguided youth who develop their own moral sense.

CH: Which is pretty much a lack of morals?

Joaquin: Right.

End of interview.

Transcribed by Gladiatrix.

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