Joaquin Phoenix stars as disabled cartoonist
He talks about portraying quadriplegic in May film “He Won’t Get Far on Foot”
PARK CITY, Utah – For Joaquin Phoenix, there’s an irony to premiering his work at film festivals. “I’ve never, ever been to a film festival and actually seen a movie,” says Phoenix, 43, huddled in the back of a hotel restaurant at the Waldorf Astoria Park City.
Between red carpets and interviews, this year’s Sundance has been especially busy for the three-time Oscar-nominated actor, who has two films playing at the mountainside event: You Were Never Really Here (in theaters April 6), for which he won a best-actor award at Cannes Film Festival last May in France; and Don’t Worry, He Won’t Get Far on Foot (out May 11), which reunites him with director Gus Van Sant to play quadriplegic cartoonist John Callahan. Phoenix was unfamiliar with Callahan’s irreverent, roughly drawn comics before receiving Van Sant’s script a year and a half ago. He sat down with USA TODAY to talk about the role.
Question: In the film, we see how John struggled with alcoholism, his disability and his abandonment by his mother at birth. How do you feel those factors influenced him as an artist?
Phoenix: I’m sure all of those things did shape him, but I think he was really influenced by Sam Gross and his book I Am Blind and My Dog Is Dead. ... Then there was this moment that unfolded, where it feels less like a decision and
something you’re just compelled to do.
Q: Did you have to learn to draw?
Phoenix: I was terrible. Awful. (Laughs.) I feel there are things that if you give me enough time, I can get it “movie good” enough, like playing guitar (as Johnny Cash in Walk the Line). Under the best circumstances I can’t draw, but then the way that he drew — which is in the chair, with pillows, and he mostly used his shoulders. ... I was so disappointed in myself, because I really wanted to get that down.
Q: What research did you find most helpful in playing a quadriplegic?
Phoenix: Obviously, we have his (1990 memoir). ... I also went to Rancho Los Amigos, the rehabilitation hospital where he was a patient.
Q: What was the trick to nailing his physicality?
Phoenix: Gus had shot some footage of John. What I learned was that I assumed if you had the same injury, it had the same effect on everybody’s body, but everybody’s different. So I was able to watch John, and one thing he did a lot was he was always shifting in the chair. My assumption was that he couldn’t move at all, but he would grab the edge of the chair and pull himself.
The head of occupational therapy said, “He’s in a lot of pain.” So I thought that was telling, because I had this assumption that you don’t feel anything.
Q: There was backlash to the movie from a disability rights group, saying a disabled actor should have been cast in the role. Was that ever a consideration?
Phoenix: I’m actually sad. I don’t want somebody to feel like (we think) we have a greater understanding of what it is to be disabled. I want to feel like there’s a community. It’s always good when people draw attention to things like this. It’s something that maybe we’re becoming more aware of and sensitive to, and hopefully there will be other characters who are disabled in films.