Joker star Joaquin fled a sex cult with his family and had to watch his brother die of a drugs overdose before finding Oscars fame
suggested that female members should sleep with men to attract them into the sect, a process he dubbed “flirty fishing”. This was the final straw for the Bottoms.
They threw themselves on the mercy of a local vicar, spent a year living in an empty caretaker’s shack until, too poor to afford flights, they eventually convinced a cargo ship crew to take them back to the US.
Eventually ending up in Hollywood, they spent a few years busking as a sibling singing group, moving “about 30 times”, until Arlyn landed a job as assistant to NBC’s casting director.
She got the children to meet agent Iris Burton, who set them on the path to fame and still steers Joaquin’s career. But how did a childhood in the cult affect the Phoenix boys? Joaquin would have been just a toddler when the family left Venezuela but River was six. He once said he had lost his virginity aged four and claimed to be “celibate from the ages of 10 to 14”.
River’s close friend Corey Feldman described how the star had a relationship with an older woman on the set of 1986’s Stand By Me when he was 14, saying: “Sex was nearly all River could think about.” Joaquin has been quick to defend his parents’ involvement in the cult, maintaining they left as soon as they realised what was going on.
“My parents were never negligent,” he said. Arlyn, now 75, later said of Berg: “The guy running it got crazy.”
John Phoenix, who Joaquin now bears an uncanny resemblance to, eventually moved to Costa Rica before dying around five years ago.
In his book Last Night at The Viper Room, Gavin Edwards claims John stated Berg “may have been a sexual pervert but is a better man than most”.
Whatever the truth, there was no doubting their unconventional upbringing made the Phoenixes stand out in Hollywood. After movies such as A Night in the Life of Jimmy Reardon, River was the breadwinner.
But he predicted that Joaquin – who changed his name to Leaf for a few years to sound more like his siblings – would be the bigger star.
After the simple life commune, River found of the himself uncomfortable with fame and was soon seduced by drugs and alcohol, which led to that fateful night at Johnny Depp’s club.
Some might argue Joaquin was cut from the same cloth. Like, River, he certainly seems to feel the pain of the world. But he has found solace in his three-year relationship with A Ghost Story actress Rooney Mara.
And just like Arthur Fleck, he is misunderstood, with a reputation for being difficult to work with that is more the determination to play the part to his best.
He was so “method”, he barely spoke to co-star Robert De Niro on the set of Joker, despite him being his hero – because he claimed their characters would not speak. And his adult roles can be categorised as dark, dark and dark – from a teenager seduced into committing murder in 1995’s To Die For to the twisted emperor in Gladiator, Johnny Cash in Walk The Line, and comic book villain Joker.
Could his early start in Children of God have played a part? Or is it still the pain of watching his brother that night at The Viper Room? “I try not to f***ing think about that,” he has said.
It’s what made his Oscar tribute to River all the more special.
And in finally picking up the award his brother never won – just down the road from where River died – Joaquin looks to have proved him right about becoming the bigger star.